Wreck-It-Ralph and the Tale of the Antivirus Agent
by rhcpfan123
Summary: Following the events of the first movie, Wreck-It-Ralph, Vanellope von Schweetz, Fix-It Felix Jr, and Sargent Calhoun are all well-known for their heroics in Sugar Rush. An antivirus software agent from a cyber café finds out the news for himself. He becomes the catalyst for a series of adventures, close calls, and surprises for the heroes of Game Central Station.
1. Act 1 Chapter 1: Victor Vector

**Hello!_ I have never really written before or done fanfiction of any sort! Here's my shot at it and feel free to express your opinion of this piece! Here goes._**

So the news spread like wildfire.

The story of how four 'heroes' saved the Litwak arcade became common knowledge within Game Central Station in just a couple of hours. Not only did everyone in Game Central Station know about the whole ordeal, but even characters from other consoles and in the online gaming world began learning the names Wreck-it-Ralph, Vanellope Von Schweetz, Fix-it-Felix Jr., and Calhoun.

The story made the front pages of Toad's post in Mushroom Kingdom, Zelda made the announcement to her kingdom of Hyrule the following day, good and bad guy alike all began learning the incredible feats of what the four became known as the "Unlikely Heroes".

One particular character, an agent of a self-produced antivirus software, became very interested in the story.

Just two blocks down from Litwak's arcade was an internet café or cyber café. They are generally more common in countries outside of the United States but this particular cyber café was run by a Filipino immigrant by the name of Jose Ayala. Ayala's café had all the hit online and computer games installed on each individual machine from World of Warcraft to League of Legends to Starcraft and even the old Age of Empires series. It had a different set of games compared to Litwak's arcade but it was not uncommon for kids to ricochet between hanging out at both on weekends and long holiday breaks from school.

Ayala's Café got the news of the "Unlikely Heroes" relatively slow compared to other arcades and gaming locations. About three days after the whole ordeal to be exact.

"Go over these characters with me one more time" Victor Vector asked sitting in his desk while perusing copies of the Toad's Post that he picked up when he visited the Mushroom Kingdom just hours before.

Victor Vector was produced by Jose Ayala. Ayala did study computer science at a local university in Manila before coming to the United States to finish his education at community college. What Ayala designed, despite his lack of an extremely sophisticated education, was nothing to be ashamed of. Victor Vector was an agent that any antivirus software would want. He was programmed to track anything malicious to the systems and he was programmed to do it quickly and efficiently.

What Jose Ayala saw of Victor Vector was only complicated code that had to be read with Java Script. What Jose Ayala did not see of Victor Vector was something he probably did not even imagine.

Victor is very human like in appearance to the rest of the gaming world; he is broad shouldered, has dark black hair with bangs that cover much of his forehead and is very Asian looking in general. His height is above average and he weighs a hundred and seventy seven pounds. That weight was in strength and he really did not have any excess mass that he needs to get rid of. When he wears armor for battle with viruses, his presence is extremely formidable and intimating, when he is just on inspection in a standard black suit and tie, he is just intimidating with a bit of dashy tied to that. He has even been mistaken for characters such as Marth from Fire Emblem or as a computer generated version of Bruce Lee by members of the community

One great anecdote that the community of Ayala's Café enjoys sharing is a time when six months ago, some misguided teenager was able to install a game, Fallout 3, without Ayala's permission onto a couple of his machines. The teenager's agenda was just to get enough copies out so that he could let some of his own peers play the game; unfortunately, the files he used to download it were infected. The Fallout viruses quickly infected half of the machines in the café and even leaked in the World of Warcraft. Victor Vector, along with an army of soldiers from Age of Empires and certain champions from League of Legends, were able to rally together to push back the Fallout viruses and even all the infected files before Ayala was forced to dump any of his computers. Victor Vector's meticulous planning and excellent execution of his plans earned him a reputation for efficiency and even a bit of ruthlessness. That story is even well known in Litwak's arcade, though it is definitely overshadowed by the feats of the "Unlikely heroes" at this point.

Victor Vector operated from the central computer in Ayala's Café. Ayala has thirty two computers and another eight coming in by Christmas. He arranged the café in a four by eight kind of arrangement. His prices were very reasonable and affordable for kids in the area. Play whatever game you want with the options of playing online and with other guests in the café for three dollars an hour, not a bad fee for someone in middle or high school.

By being in the center, Victor Vector had no trouble responding to viruses and other emergencies due to his strategic positioning. Right now, however, he was not thinking about viruses hitting his own café right now.

"Well" his secretary began to read off, "Don't you want to hear about the complaint that's coming from computer number four?"

"I'll worry about that later," Victor responded, "Read me what you have on these 'heroes".

Clearing her throat, the secretary continued reading off a very recent article that she got from a visit to Game Central Station and Paper Boy on Victor's command.

"Wreck-it-Ralph, or Ralph, is nine feet tall, 643 pounds, has a bit of temper that has evened out from the experiences he has had recently. He is a wrecker and also Game Central Station's favorite bad guy. He spends a lot of his free time at Tappers and visiting his beloved friend, Vanellope Van Schweetz, in Sugar Rush."

"Vanellope Von Schweetz, nine years old and the newly 'elected' president of Sugar Rush. She took over the game after the demise of King Candy who turned out to be the infamous Turbo from the game Turbotime. She has a superpower of being able to 'glitch' in bursts of short distances that enables her to race extremely well."

"Fix-It Felix Jr., the hero of Fix-It Felix Jr, made his name in fixing in the namesake game. His major contribution in the whole tale includes fixing Vanellope's go-cart and fixing the finish line that enabled the game to reset itself at Wreck-it-Ralph was able to construct a makeshift beacon out of Diet-Cola Mountain. He married Sergeant Calhoun shortly after the event."

"Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun, the lead character of Hero's Duty" Victor's secretary paused, noticing that Victor was not even making eye contact with her.

"Are you listening sir?" she asked. "You look bored."

"I'm listening" he said, still reading the Toad's Post.

She took a deep breath and continued, "Well she was responsible for tracking the Cy-Bugs in Sugar Rush and provided security for the other characters with her knowledge of firearms and combat. Married Fix-It Felix, Jr shortly after the events."

Victor put his paper down and closed his eyes. His secretary was confused but she did not bother asking him what he thought or what was going on, this was what he usually does. It means that he is in extremely deep thought.

She did have another question though.

"Why are you so interested in these characters?"

Victor opened his eyes moments later and got up from his chair slowly.

"Is this everything" he said, taking small steps slowly toward his secretary, "That you can tell me about them?"

She nodded her head yes.

"To answer your question," he said as he grabbed his anti-viral pistol and blade, "I think these people will be able to help me. About computer four, it is probably server issues with the Steam network, those folks over there never seem to figure it out. Just send one of our trouble shooting guys out there and they will solve the problem for them."

Victor smiled as he concealed his two weapons.

"Looks like I'm going to pay a visit to Game Central Station. I'll be back later"


	2. Chapter 2: The Unlikely Heroes

**CHAPTER 2**

It was quite a festive scene.

Tapper was giving out root beers at no cost and he did not even complain about having to clean all those empty glasses he always ends up with! All the characters in Game Central Station know how big of a mouth Tapper can get when his place gets crowded and at this time, it is packed and not a single complaint escaped his mouth. This was a different time in Game Central Station.

It has been three days since Sugar Rush has been saved. The hype and energy has not died down one bit. Ralph, Vanellope, Felix, and even Sergeant Calhoun couldn't walk around Game Central Station without being asked for an autograph, a picture, or demonstrations of their abilities. Everyone loved it when Ralph did his trademark "I'M GONNA WRECK IT" quote with his ferocious mannerisms, all acted of course. The community of Game Central Station could not get enough of Vanellope glitching or Felix fixing something with his magic hammer or even Calhoun's high-definition beauty.

Ralph, just days ago, wanted to be a hero and to be recognized. Now, in a short time-span as well, he has already found something much more important, true friends and the ability to accept himself for who he is. Bad guy, good guy, it did not matter to him anymore. The fame that has been bestowed upon him for his heroic actions in Sugar Rush, the same kind of fame that he would have done anything for just days ago, was trivial compared to the strong platonic bond that he has formed with Vanellope. Despite his bad guy status, if that little girl likes him, how bad could he really be?

Things are great for once, so Ralph thought. He continued his "take it one game at a time" mentality. Some of the kids at the arcade who played _Fix-It-Felix Jr_. could have sworn that they saw the wrecking guy smile at times while he was wrecking the building. All of them usually dismiss it once they get ultra-excited about seeing Q*bert and the rest of his crew in the bonus levels of the game.

Sugar Rush, as anticipated, became extremely popular with the children as well. Especially since Vanellope, who became known simply as the "super-awesome new character" to the arcaders, is just a natural born racer. She is a fan favorite and kids even pay extra quarters to just get first pick so that they can select Vanellope as their racer. Glitch and all, everyone loves her. How could they not love an adorable brat with dirty hair that wins?

Over at Hero's Duty, kids still went crazy over the high-definition and the amount of action that is packaged in one game. Besides, Sargent Calhoun is quite an inspiring character. Even after their big victory over Turbo in Sugar Rush, Calhoun was still a bit stingy about introducing other characters into Hero's Duty not because she did not want her thunder to be stolen but because she did not want a Cy-bug sneaking out of the game. They learned that lesson the hard way when Ralph went in trying to earn himself the prestigious "Medal of Hero's" and a Cy-bug managed to sneak out with him on the aircraft shuttle that Ralph accidently hijacked. She only wanted individuals who were programmed to deal with Cy-bugs specifically to be in the game. She doesn't let Ralph or Vanellope come visit her in Hero's Duty, not even Felix, probably because she's over protective of her new lover as well. If she is to meet a friend somewhere, she would go over to Tappers or their game. She's a dynamite gal, according to Felix, that can look over herself. Felix does not worry about her the way that she worries about him. Calhoun is determined to make sure that the events with her past lover does not repeat and is intent on making sure that Felix stays safe at all times.

After closing time, Calhoun got on the next available train to go check on Felix over at Fix-It-Felix Jr. After arriving at her husband's world, she saw no initial sign of Felix and by habit, she took out her weapon. She got off the train slowly, crouched, and moved with caution. She heard something snap in the bushes nearby and charged her gun.

"Freeze!" she shouted, doing a complete 360 with her gun aimed at the bush.

Out of the bushes popped out a rather short nicelander in a white suit and a black tie begging for her not to shoot.

"Gene?" she said with sudden realization traced in her voice.

"Please! Don't shoot!" he cried, "I was just trimming the bushes. And I don't know where Felix is! I think he's up on the roof with everyone else throwing Ralph off the building!"

Suddenly, someone laughed that wasn't either Gene nor Calhoun.

"Well clearly, you have done this before."

Both Sergeant Calhoun and Gene turned around at a new guest who was just entering the world of _Fix-It-Felix Jr_. Calhoun was about to raise her gun until this stranger remarked,

"No need for that. I'm surprised that you just realized that I am here. You did not hear the train coming in?"

This was some well dressed, tall, and broad shouldered individual in a dark suit. He looked like a character out of some Japanese RPG. Both Gene and Calhoun realized that this is someone who probably is not from Game Central Station.

"The name is Victor Vector. It's a pleasure to meet you, Sergeant Calhoun."

Meanwhile, Ralph was thinking about how much he loves this part of the day, closing time.

He loved it because the nicelanders would conclude the day by lifting him up of the roof of the building and throwing him into a pile of mud. Particularly, as they are about to throw him off, the nicelanders would lift him up just a teensy bit higher and that's when he could get a perfect view of Sugar Rush. At this point, even though the arcade is technically closed, he could see the kids racing Vanellope in the concluding stages of the race. She could be 3rd or 4th place in the race and she always found a way, glitch or no glitch, to get into first place in the nick of time. As Vanellope fist punches the kid playing as her congratulations and receives her trophy for winning, she always continues to make sure that she waves to Ralph. Her smile and expression alone assures Ralph that there is something to look forward to every day. Something he has not had before.

As the nicelanders prepared their final push to get Ralph off the building, Felix whispered to him "I'll meet you downstairs!"

Ralph winked as he fell from the top of the building.

SPLOOSH

Ralph's used to the fall. After thirty years of falling down the same building, he's gotten used to the impact and the feeling of mud all over him. Felix came out the door on the first floor of the building and with his trademark buoyant happiness, jumped in joy.

"We have never been this popular in years!" he exclaimed, hugging Ralph in the process "And now not only are getting the quarters in like no other, but now I can know that my lady, my dynamite gal, awaits me at the end of the day."

Ralph smiled in response, patting Felix on the back. "

"I'm happy for you, brother" he said as the two walked towards the train tracks that connects Fix-it-Felix Jr. to the rest of the gaming world, "I'm sure she is waiting for you right by the trai…."

Both were petrified at what they saw.

They saw that Gene stood as frozen as an ice sculpture with his eyes wide open in fear. Neither Calhoun nor Gene were hurt, but what was shocking to everyone was that Calhoun had her gun charged and loaded, aimed at a well-dressed Asian man who did not seem to be phased out at all by the whole ordeal.

"My lady!" Felix shouted in shock "What's going on?"

Calhoun aimed the gun directly at the stranger's head. Whoever this person was, he was brave enough to turn around to address both Felix and Ralph despite the fact he was being held at gunpoint.

"What a pleasure" he said smiling with the back of his head facing Calhoun's laser pistol "The name is Victor Vector. Director of anti-viral programs over at the Ayala Café two blocks down the street."

Calhoun cocked the gun and yelled with formidable force,

"And you're about to be dead as a busted doornail in ten seconds if you don't tell me why you're really here! You know what happens when people die outside their games, don't you?"

Ralph and Felix were unsure what to do. Naturally, they wanted to find a way to ease the tension of the situation and they were both thinking very fast of a solution to do such. Victor Vector remained calm and he did not even turn around to address Calhoun directly, but he did respond.

"I understand the consequences of the possibility of dying outside my game, or world if you will, I won't regenerate."


	3. Chapter 3: Victor pleads

CHAPTER 3

Despite the tension of the situation, Felix was able to say quite calmly,

"Well, you are taking this exceptionally well mister." He said to Victor while he quivered a wee bit.

Ralph interrupted.

"What's even going on here?" he said, waving his huge arms "Who is this guy? Calhoun, please put the gun down! I don't think this is completely necessary."

Continuing to hold her gun in position, she did not listen to Ralph's inquiry.

"I smell trouble all over this sucker" she responded "And I'm not going to put us at risk because we get all too friendly and warm-welcoming with every stranger!"

Victor turned around back at Calhoun and continued to keep his composure. His face did not even so much as to twitch slightly despite the amount audacity in the situation.

"I'll explain to them what I explained to you. You can continue holding the gun up to my face, I do not mind" Victor said smiling.

"Here's what I am here for." Victor continued, turning back from Calhoun to Felix and Ralph. "I made a mistake…"

"You sure as heck did." Calhoun snorted.

Victor did not acknowledge the remark as he kept explaining,

"I kept the Ayala Café clear and clean of viruses for the past six years. In my career, I had only let one virus escape my grasp. Unfortunately, he was, and is still, the most powerful virus I ever encountered. His name is Ranny Checkerman. His last name comes from the ridiculous checkered suit that he wears. He is corrupted, malicious, and extremely ambitious. He currently operates in the new and developing massively multiplayer online role-playing game called _Realm of Adventures_. I know I am asking for so much by asking you for your help, but this is your concern, at least it should be, as well."

"If Ranny takes over _Realm of Adventures_," Victor continued, sounding more concerned about the issue he's talking about than by being held at gunpoint "He, as all viruses do, will spread. He will be able to infect the Ayala Café because he would have control of an entire online domain, and that infection will spread here in one way or another. He will easily get the infection in our café through the internet. Our community will be turned to scrap and there will be an overflow of refugees from the Ayala Café into the next nearest place. Naturally, they will pour in Litwak's Arcade, and Ranny will definitely find a way to sneak into here one way or another. I need all of your help and I know that you all have the abilities to help me complete this unfinished task. I need to make up for the mistake I made years ago and eradicate this Ranny once and for all."

"This" Victor began to conclude "is not just about the Ayala Café or Litwak's Arcade, it's about all consoles and gaming locations everywhere. Ranny has the potential to wreck all of that, no pun intended, and we are the only ones who can stop him."

The group remained silent in thought just momentarily until Calhoun said sternly,

"Nice story, but first of all, I don't buy it and second of all even if it were true," she said, putting away her pistol after taking a deep breath "we aren't interested pal. I still suspect you have plans to attack us when we are least expecting, just like a cy-bug would"

Felix and Ralph were relieved to see Calhoun put down her weapon. The tension of the whole situation lightened up substantially for everyone except Victor, who sighed and for the first time in this whole encounter, had an expression of disappointment on his face.

"Fine" he answered "But know that it will reach here and if no one takes action soon enough, it will be impossible to stop."

Victor was about to continue with what he had to say until his lecture was interrupted by the sounds of a familiar, sugary engine sound.

"Vanellope!" Ralph exclaimed in excitement, almost forgetting about the whole ordeal that just took place.

She parked the car almost instantly by the train tracks and popped out of her vehicle which she used to win the decisive race in Sugar Rush over King Candy. She even named her kart the S.S Stinkbrain in honor of her friend, Wreck-it-Ralph.

"Didja miss me?" she said in her trademark raspy and youthful voice, suddenly realizing there was someone else that she didn't recognize "Wait, who is that?"

Victor glanced over at Vanellope and shrugged.

"You know what they say over in the Mushroom Kingdom" he said, preparing to leave the world of Fix-it-Felix Jr. "You can take a Yoshi to water but you can't make it drink. I can't make you guys do what's right; I can only show you what is _right_."

Before Victor boarded the next train to Game Central Station with expressions of defeat and loss clearly painted on his face, he turned around to reveal his anti-viral pistol and blade to the group.

"If I wanted to hurt any of you, I could have done it. _Trust me_"

Victor and the train that he boarded to Game Central Station was gone in a matter of seconds.

"What was that all about?" Vanellope asked as she took out a sugarless lollipop to chew on "Sounds like he's a bit confused about where his _duty _lies, AHAHA get it? _Duty lies_?"


	4. Chapter 4: The Fellowship of the Pony

**CHAPTER 4**

Things have not been this tense in a while.

Calhoun still steamed red with frustration at the incident. Felix took her to the side to comfort her. The harsh reality is that Calhoun is still suffering from post-trauma from the loss of losing her first fiancé. The amount of emotional damage inflicted upon Calhoun is very apparent from the way she is. The fact that she is ultra-protective of Felix and the way she handled her meeting with Victor Vector demonstrates how scarred she really is.

Ralph did his best to get Vanellope up to speed on what happened just then. He told her about how they were just concluding the day with Ralph's daily fall from the roof and that they saw Calhoun holding an Asian looking character at gunpoint. He tried his best to regurgitate the information he just heard from Victor. He told Vanellope this,

"Well basically he was telling us," he explained as he scratched his head "That there is some big bad guy that plans on taking over the world somehow through an online game and…uh…uh" the facts were getting jumbled in his mind "and something about him messing up and how we gotta do the right thing. I don't know. Honestly, kid, you really didn't miss much."

Vanellope exclaimed "It really sounds cool though!"

"Nah" Ralph laughed, motioning with his large arms "You know what's cooler? Us catching up yah lil' brat. How about I take ya to tappers for a root beer and you go tell me about all the races you won today."

Crossing her arms in response, Vanellope looked a bit frustrated.

"What is it, kid?" Ralph asked in confusion as his short-lived smile curled down.

"It's just" Vanellope began as she uncrossed her arms "Why are you guys leaving me out of this? Maybe this guy really had something important to say?"

Ralph chuckled a bit.

"Oh, come on Vanellope!" he laughed "We don't know the guy at all! And besides, if we need to take out more _really _bad guys, I'm confident that the four of us" he motioned at Calhoun and Felix whom were having a separate conversation about space and protectiveness "could take anyone on without help. We're the best team that I know of! Seriously! Whatever some goof from two blocks down has to say doesn't really concern me. It's none of our business!"

Vanellope sighed and shrugged.

"I guess you're right." She said as she began to grin her trademark grin "You still going to get me that root beer you offered? You know little children like me aren't allowed at Tappers. OH MY GOSH" she jumped with immense amount of excitement "Just being able to leave my game and traveling to other games, it's just…just…just unbelievable you know?! Will Tapper let me in? Someone like me?"

"Tapper won't care! He's my pal! Knew him ever since his game got plugged in!" Ralph exclaimed as he got into the S.S Stinkbrain with Vanellope at the wheel.

"You know the way, kid!" Ralph winked as he motioned for Vanellope to get driving.

Calhoun and Felix were already having some challenges in their marriage, and very typical ones for that matter.

Don't be confused or fooled, they love and adore each other very much. It is just that some of the baggage that Calhoun carries with her affects how she conducts herself at times. Felix explained how he felt about how she handled the situation with Victor.

"I understand that you are programmed and trained to protect what you love" he went on, holding Calhoun's hands gently, standing on his toes a bit to adjust for their height discrepancy "But sometimes we don't always need to point a gun at someone. Remember, violence is a last resort, not a first one."

Calhoun nodded and turned her head away.

"I need a root beer" she said quietly, looking away in a bit of embarrassment.

Felix smiled as he put his magic hammer back in his utility belt.

"Let's go get one together, I'm sure Ralph is already there with Vanellope." He said to her as he reached for hand "You need the break."

The two got on Calhoun's cruiser together and made their way to Tappers which was not a far ride from Fix-It-Felix Jr. It normally only took a few minutes by a train and a couple more minutes by walking to reach Tappers. They didn't go particularly fast because there was no rush. Felix also wanted to take things slowly with Calhoun, he kept in mind that this was just the beginning of his marriage and thinks would get shaky despite the fact that he knows that the two love each other very much.

"I know you get this from me all the time, honey bunches" Felix said as his cheeks began to glow red "But you are always my dynamite gal."

Calhoun smiled and began to respond

"Thanks Felix, I really wish you would…WHAT is going on?"

Felix gave a puzzled expression as a response but realized that Calhoun was looking at something else. Felix turned around to see a huge crowd gather at one of the gaming ports to a nearby game.

"What is that?" Felix said, his jaw beginning to drop.

They parked the land cruiser on an empty plot and swiftly got out to inspect what was going on.

About ten meters, or two machines down, from Sugar Rush and the game adjacent to _Street Fighter II, _is a game geared towards younger audiences called _Pony Express_. It is a riding game as opposed to a racing game. The objective of the game was to take a ride on your pony and deliver mail to as many addresses as possible while dodging obstacles and bandits. It is a game that has a setting of the Wild West without it being so wild since it is supposed to be a younger kid's game.

The mayor of _Pony Express _was standing outside his game and crying, literally crying tears with his hand over his face. The mayor was an old, chubby fellow, but a very sweet man as well. His has been mayor of _Pony Express _ever since it was plugged in eleven years ago.

"What's the matter, mayor?" Felix asked as he and Calhoun walked closer. Felix sat next to him to give him an arm of comfort.

Many other characters were gathered around. Dinosaurs from the Jurassic Park game were overlooking with curiosity, toads from the Mushroom Kingdom gathered around in awe, and even some of the nicelanders were there trying to see what was going on.

The mayor sobbed.

"They kidnapped Jerry jack!" he said as tears welled up in his eyes.

Jerry Jack was the beloved Arabian pony of _Pony Express_. He was the one that has been delivering mail to the community of _Pony Express _for the past eleven years. Gamers would ride on Jerry Jack to complete the objective of delivering mail to the fine people of the Wild West world of _Pony Express_. Without Jerry though, the game will be considered broken and their plug will surely be pulled in the morning.

"Litwak already put an out of order paper on our machine" The mayor continued crying.

Ralph and Vanellope were already there before Felix and Calhoun arrived.

"We gotta do something." Ralph said "Mayor, we can help you."

Felix pulled out his magic hammer.

"We can fix it!" he exclaimed with his buoyant smile as he gathered around the other three heroes.

And a very familiar voice rang as well.

"We want to help!" said two very famous brothers.

Felix and the rest of the gang turned around to see Mario and Luigi riding the same Yoshi. The two brothers dismounted and wiped off the dust of their gloves. The confidence in their posture and voice was a morale booster for everyone. There was no explanation needed. The presence of the Mario Brothers from the his series of games was itself a grand spectacle.

The brothers had their very famous blue overalls on with two large yellow buttons holding the straps together. Mario had his trademark red cap with a giant M on it while Luigi had his well-known green cap with a big L on it. They have spent many years rescuing the Mushroom Kingdom from various schemes of the infamous Bowser and for getting in other adventures that usually involved saving the day in one way or another. For a pair of Italian brothers who are also plumbers, their namesake was unlike any other. They were definitely Mushroom Kingdom's finest heroes.

"I know you guys are big in Game Central Station now" Luigi said as he adjusted his trademark green cap "But I think the six of us will make an awesome team. We will find this little pony in no time!"

The four unlikely heroes, as Vanellope, Ralph, Felix, and Calhoun have been labeled as, smiled and nodded at each other with excitement. The Mario brother's prestige rang throughout the arcade and beyond. The four all felt extremely honored at the Mario Brother's offer to work together.

"Of course we want you guys to come with us!" Ralph shouted "Aha, this is gonna be great!"

Another very familiar face raced onto the scene.

"Well" said a blue hedgehog with red speed shoes that everyone knows as Sonic "You guys are gonna need some speed for this mission."

Sonic the hedgehog, the title character and protagonist of the series named after him, is known for his unbelievable speed and for being like the wind. He is a drifter who lives as he wants and makes life a series of unbelievable and crazy adventures. Sonic has an unbelievable code of chivalry, he stands for the values freedom and hates oppression. Naturally, Sonic would lend a hand out to others in need. Silently and unanimously, everyone agreed in smiles and bouts of excitement to have the help of Sonic the hedgehog.

The mayor continued crying, but this time it seemed that he was crying tears of joy as opposed to tears of sorrow.

"I am so blessed to have y'all" he said with a change of mood in his voice "I just want y'all to be really careful out there. Those are viruses that kidnapped Jerry Jack; they even locked up our sheriffs. I just don't want any of you guys to get hurt. It's pretty dangerous out there"

Ralph and Vanellope laughed.

"Don't worry mister," Vanellope chuckled as she pointed to Ralph "If anyone's gonna get hurt, it's going to be this doofus!"

Everyone shared a laugh as Vanellope smirked at Ralph.

"Maybe I could be of assistance" Said another familiar voice to some of the characters.

There stood Victor Vector, still in his dark suit and standing tall.

"I've dealt with viruses for many years." He began explaining "Virus removal, recovery strategies, and methods of anti-viral combat require meticulous planning and strong understanding of the subject-matter. Depending on what kind of virus it is, you use a different kind of method, and each method requires different utilities and plans. This situation is unpredictable and who knows what will happen. I just think you guys will want, excuse me, _need _my help."

The Mario brothers laughed.

"And who'sa this?" said Mario with a grin.

"The same anti-viral agent that dealt with the _Fallout _viruses at the Ayala Café" answered Victor confidently.

The crowd began to mutter amongst themselves. Some knew the story better than others, some never heard of it. This did not stop Calhoun from trying to interrupt the whole situation.

"This is none of your business stranger. Get lost." She snarled.

Victor tilted his head with mock confusion.

"None of my business?" he said as he took out his anti-viral pistol "You, of all people, should know that viruses spread. If this is not dealt with properly, my own café could be infected with a virus just because you people don't know how to deal with one correctly."

Ralph, who is also a little suspicious at this point about Victor's eagerness to help, asked him,

"What's the catch?"

"Here's the _catch," _Victor responded, looking at Ralph and the other characters "If I help you guys, and not just help a little bit, but substantially, I want you to come with me to the online game, _Realm of Adventures_, to at least see what is going on. I promise you that you will need my help substantially in this case. I already suspect that this viral attack is no coincidence in the fact that it definitely seems as though it parallels the attacks that are going on elsewhere."

The four unlikely heroes looked at each other.

"If you help us out, a lot" Ralph said, bargaining with the anti-viral agent "We'll _think_ about coming with you to your game. But if you are just some spoof, completely useless, or trying to con us for whatever reason, I'll make sure I wreck you personally."

Victor smiled, loading his antiviral pistol.

"Well," he laughed , the humming of his charged anti-viral pistol sounding in the background "What are we waiting for? Mr. Mayor, we'll handle this. Just get yourself and the other civilians of your world to safety."

The mayor stopped crying and stood up, he was shorter than most of the characters there and was taller than Vanellope by only an inch or two.

"I can't express how happy I am with the fact that everyone here is banding together to help out a poor fellow who has failed to protect his own game. Thank you so much, really. Thank you so much Ralph. You will show those viruses what it means to wreck!"

He continued to thank each character personally.

"Thank you, Felix, who is always so eager to fix problems."

Felix raised his head with a warm smile.

"Thank you, President Von Schweetz, your sweetness is just overwhelming at times"

The two shared a brief hug as he continued down the line.

"Sergeant Calhoun, thank you for doing your duty and beyond."

Calhoun stood frozen with a serious expression on her face; she was treating this like it were a mission in Hero's Duty.

"The Mario Brothers, Sonic, this is just too much. I thought that the unlikely heroes coming in to save my skin was too much, but with all of you? Wow, I am just super blessed am I not?"

The Mario Brothers jumped up in the air while Sonic did a running pose out of habit.

"And uhm…" he stopped upon Victor whom he has never seen before "I can't say that I do know your name."

Victor laughed and patted the mayor on the head.

"You don't need to know my name, just being a decent pedestrian doing what's right, Mr. Mayor." Victor told him "Just get us the train to your game and we'll eradicate these viruses, sir."

The mayor nodded and called up the train that connected Game Central Station to _Pony Express_.

"Let's not wait for this sucker." Sergeant Calhoun suggested to the rest of the crew "Vanellope, you drive!"

"I don't know if my car can fit that many people" Vanellope replied

"Don't worry about us!" Said the Mario Brothers "We'll just ride our Yoshi!"

Sonic didn't even respond as he ran off into _Pony Express_. The unlikely heroes all crowded onto Vanellope's car, the S.S Stinkbrain, and sped right after Sonic as they were followed by the Mario Brothers.

Now it was just an awkward scene, with the mayor and Victor Vector standing in front of a shocked crowd of video game characters.

"Uhm," the mayor stuttered, not knowing about what to say about Victor Vector being left behind.

"I'll take the train when it arrives" Victor said, not really caring that he was abandoned by the rest of his 'team', "I'll catch up to them."


	5. Chapter 5: Our Duty

**Chapter 5**

The "fellowship" that formed outside of the game, _Pony Express,_ felt as though they walked into a classic Western film.

The setting was a desert with dust balls flying all over. Cactuses were dotted across the landscape and even the sun was more distinct in this world compared to the other games. The Sun had a bright red aura that went along with the dryness of the area. A red sky blanketed _Pony Express _and the air was dry as can be. The S.S Stinkbrain left trails of dust as the heroes sped through the surface of _Pony Express._

"Geeze" Ralph said as he hung onto the back of the S.S Stinkbrain, using one hand to wipe his nose "They sure need to do something about that dust problem here."

Felix was originally sitting shotgun with Calhoun. He jumped up from his seat to stand on Ralph's shoulder for a better view of the world.

"I don't really see anything. Jimminy Jamminy, I am so glad that I live in a pent house instead of some cabin in the middle of the desert! Maybe Jerry Jack getting kidnapped isn't so bad, assuming he's in a nicer place and all" Felix joked with a lack of confidence in his voice.

Ralph noticed that Vanellope wasn't driving as fast as she could.

"Hey kid" Ralph said "Couldja go a bit faster?"

"Shouldn't we wait for Mario?" Vanellope asked.

"Does it look like Sonic waited for us?" Ralph responded "Don't worry, we'll all be fine. I'm sure we are all going to find each other one way or another."

"I see it!" Felix exclaimed as he jumped up for joy "There's the town! I could really use a rest from this heat"

The town was nothing really to be impressed by. It was made up of a couple of western style homes, some nicer than others. It had a pub in the center and the mayor's home is perhaps the most decent looking building in the whole area. The roads were really wide and dusty. As the characters rolled down into town, you felt like you were in a classic western movie. You had people walking around the town with big ten-gallon hats and large cowboy boots with the spurs on the end, which on the spikey looking things on the boots. The characters attire of _Pony Express_ was based off of what people wore during the late nineteenth century gold rush era. You had people in dresses, people in overalls, and even some people in roughed up jeans. Regardless of the interesting culture, _Pony Express _is neither the most exciting game nor a fun town for most people.

The unlikely heroes stuck out like a sore thumb. They were immediately greeted by an old couple just after a few minutes of drifting into the town. Sonic was not in sight and the Mario Brothers were significantly behind the Unlikely Heroes. The old man was dressed in torn jeans and plain white shirt while the woman had long silver hair that went all the way to her butt and with a worn out pair of overalls.

"Hi there stranger!" said the man "You must be outsiders!"

"We sure are!" Ralph smiled as Vanellope hit the brakes and proceeded to turn off the car "We heard about your pony problem?"

"Well feller" the man said "We have another problem right now. They put this hedgehog in jail…"

"Hedgehog?" Ralph exclaimed.

Vanellope turned around in her driver seat

"Must be Sonic!" she suggested "Why would they lock up Sonic?"

Ralph continued to ask questions regarding the issue.

"What happened? Why did they lock him up?"

The couple sighed together and the woman took her turn at explaining what was going on.

"I know our Mayor left town to get help from the outside" the woman began as she held her partner's hand "but even in the short time span that he was gone. This gang of thieves and bandits already took over the town. The same ones that viciously kidnapped Jerry Jack. They are already governing everything. This hedgehog came into the central pub trying to find out what happened to Jerry. It didn't take that poor feller long to realize that he walked right into the gang. He put up a good fight but now he's jailed."

The gang looked at each other with worried looks.

"Ma'am," Felix said with concern "Do you know where Jerry Jack is?"

"We don't" she replied "That's the problem, and now this poor guy is in trouble too. Honestly, I wouldn't mind if our game got unplugged. I don't want anyone else getting hurt on our behalf."

"Don't say that, lady" Ralph interrupted "We'll find a way to save everyone. I promise."

She smiled warmly in response and held Ralph's incredibly large hands gently. She put her head on Ralph's hands and said softly.

"They are holding your friend prisoner in the central pub" the woman explained "There is a gang of about five or six of em, they are dressed like us but I don't think they're from here. I don't know why they are doing what they're doing, but they are dangerous, I do know that for sure. If you're gonna fight em or arrest em or whatever, go down to the pub and please be careful. They hurt our sheriff real bad just a couple hours ago"

She sighed one last time.

"Really though, bless you all and bless your code, your designers really made you into incredible characters. Please though, I beg you not to get hurt. Please…enough people have been hurt because of this"

The couple carried on their stroll on the dusty roads in the other direction. The four heroes took a moment of silence before Vanellope asked if it was okay if she could keep driving.

Ralph gave the nod,

"Let's go save this game." He said with determination "I'm not letting this game go down."

Vanellope drove the car faster and with a sense of urgency. Their friend and fellow compatriot was in trouble. This whole thing just began to escalate and the four of them became motivated enough to make sure that they can do what they can to make things right.

"There it is" Vanellope said as she began to decelerate "Let's go do this!"

As excited as she was, Ralph did not want her to get out.

"Kid" he said to her as Felix and Calhoun got out of the S.S Stinkbrain "I want you to stay here. Things could get messy in there, and I don't want you to get hurt…besides, we may need a getaway driver"

"I'm going in with you, pal, whether you like it or not!" Vanellope insisted "And I'm sure you'd agree, Stinkbrain, that I'm a whole lot more than just your getaway person."

Knowing how persistent Vanellope is with what she wants, Ralph reluctantly agreed.

"You gotta stay right behind me, all right? No matter what happens" Ralph said sternly.

The four of them stood together outside the central pub of Pony Express. The wooden hinged doors at the front was all that was between them and the unknown. From the outside, they could hear chatter and indistinct talking, just a common scene at any bar or pub. The characters related the building to what Tappers is to the rest of Game Central Station, somewhere for characters to meet to show a breeze, talk about their day, and relax.

Calhoun touched her blaster to make sure it was there and loaded. Felix had his hammer prepared for whatever situation, even though it could not really be used as a weapon.

"Once we walk in" Calhoun said "They will know that we're from the outside."

Ralph stood silent for a moment.

"We gotta do it" Ralph said in response "It's our duty."

Vanellope laughed when Ralph said the word 'duty', despite how serious the situation has become.

"Ralph" she smiled as she held Ralph's hand "Promise me one thing."

"Anything, kid."

"I don't want you to get hurt, no matter what, not even for me."


	6. Chapter 6: The Pony Shootout

Ralph went into the Pub first, flanked by Felix on his left, Calhoun on his right, and right behind him was his best friend, Vanellope. As they walked in, everyone in the pub turned their eyes towards the heroes. The doors closed slowly and loudly behind them, signaling new guests. The creaking of the door lingered for a few seconds longer. As expected, the unlikely heroes were stared at extremely hard, as though they were aliens from another planet.

The pub is structured like any other standard bar. There was a section where you could sit and wait for your drinks and tables in another section if by chance there were a group of drinkers that were shooting a breeze together. The place was a little run down, with patches in roof and spider webs in the corner. There even was a fireplace that didn't have a fire. All the light came from the holes in the roof and the six shabby windows that were spaced out on the far wall about forty meters from where the entrance is. This pub could probably not hold more than thirty guests and it was about half full at this moment. In fact, Ralph was so big that if he were a few inches taller, his head would go through the roof.

The heroes were immediately alarmed as they entered the pub. There were about fifteen characters in the pub and they were all dress similarly. They dressed messy and dirty, looked like they haven't showered in years, and had clothes that looked like they had to be replaced. They had the typical jeans, overalls, or dirty suit kind of attire on them. They were all sitting on the right side of the room waiting for their drinks. The left side of the building, where the tables were, was completely empty. One thing in common was that they all had dark black cowboy hats and two pistols to each man. Calhoun quickly deduced that this was some sort of uniformed gang and she quickly whispered her findings to her three friends.

One of the guests at the pub, who looked a bit older than the rest but just as mean, was dressed in beaten overalls and boots that looked like they were rotting, got up from his seat and snarled

"What are ya'll doing here." He said in a typical southern drawl as he took out a pistol from his left holster "The boss said no townies allowed here."

With a puzzled look, Ralph responded.

"Hey man" he began, trying to be diplomatic "We're not looking for trouble. We're just here to talk."

Laughing, the dirty looking man banged the table with his hand and said with a certain attitude that came off as extremely confident.

"You mean like your blue friend here?" he motioned for his men to take out a box "Show him off, boys!"

The other guests, whom the heroes quickly figured out were all together, took off the lid of the box to reveal that Sonic was stuck inside, tied up in thick rope and with a gag over his mouth. Felix began to shake in fear as Calhoun cued him to go behind her. Ralph and Vanellope did a double take, not believing what they were seeing.

"I thought the lady said there would only be six of them!" Felix exclaimed.

Laughing, the same goon responded.

"And there are more of us coming pal. Boy's" he began talking to the rest of his gang "Let's give these outsiders a classic Betty Boy welcome."

"Let me explain something" the man continued as the rest of his men began pulling out their own pistols. Two of them already took to the door to prevent anyone from getting out "When you walk into _Pony Express_, you are walking into Betty's town now. Oh, how rude of me! Introductions of course! My name is Betty! I am the leader of the Betty Boy's, the meanest and roughest gang in the world of _Pony Express_. We spent the last eleven years interrupting the players from delivering mail whenever they play this game; we are hated by the town and treated like fools, now we'll see how they feel that we 'fools' are now in charge"

Ralph interrupted him,

"Don't do anything stupid Betty," Ralph warned him, waving his huge fists "We are just here to get Jerry back. You don't have to do this."

Betty burst with laughter and routinely, the rest of the members of his gang mimicked his laughter, some seemed surer than others about what he was laughing at exactly.

"You think by asking me all nicely and stuff" Betty continued, unable to control his laughter "that I'll just give up the pony of this game? I am in charge now! And neither you, nor the mayor can do anything to stop me! I'm gonna tie you guys up and lock you in a box like I did with that stupid hedgehog!"

"Stupid?" Vanellope chimed in, stepping in front of Ralph and crossing her arms "If this game gets unplugged, there's going to be nothing to be in charge of, ga-doy!"

Smirking with confidence, Betty continued to laugh obnoxiously.

"Ah, the president of Sugar Rush" he walked up to her to graze his fingers on her soft right cheek.

"DON'T TOUCH HER" Ralph shouted.

Betty cocked his pistol and aimed it at Ralph

"You're forgetting who has the gun here, monkey-man." He continued to aim his gun at Ralph as he resumed his response to Vanellope "you see here lil' lady, I got a deal worked out with a 'boss' that really knows what he's doing. He told me to kidnap this stupid pony to get the game unplugged and he's promising me more than anyone here ever could. Not you feller's, not the mayor, not even stupid Litwak could give more than this guy. I've been weak for long enough, I've been a joke. The sheriff and player would always find a way to either avoid me or lock me up in jail. Now the tables have truly turned! Now, I will be doing much bigger things besides stopping players from delivering mail, I will be a full-on virus, taking over other games and my god, I really can't imagine the feeling that must come with so much power."

"This isn't about taking over this trash-game. This is about doing bigger things."

The doors to the pub swung open and in came two more men that were dressed like the rest of the goons.

"We got a surprise for you, boss" said the shorter of the two henchmen and they threw two body bags that were still in motion. It kind of looked like a fish flopping around and struggling on land to breath.

The two henchmen cut open the bags to reveal a tied and gagged pair of Mario Brothers. Luigi in particular had bruises all over his face and even his overalls were torn. Mario didn't look as bad but they both surly looked like they were beaten.

"This is rich!" Betty nearly burst into tears of laughter "We got the heroes of Sugar Rush, the famous Sonic, and now the adored Mario Brothers! Taking over Game Central Station is gonna be a hella lot easier than we thought! It's as though they are just walkin' up to us, beggin to be captured! Can't wait to share all of this with Ranny! He's going to laugh his socks off hearing this!"

Felix and Ralph gave each other a look of confusion when they heard the name "Ranny".

"Lock these four fools up too!" ordered Betty, still caught up in self-indulgence.

As three of Betty's bandits closed in on Ralph, he immediately gave one of them a fistful of punch to the face. The bandit screamed as he flew through the roof and Ralph took this opportunity to grab Vanellope and made his way for the nearest wall. Calhoun took out her firearm but before she could get any shots off, she and Felix were quickly overpowered by the rest of Betty's gang. Ralph pushed aside another two bandits with one arm while he used the other to hold Vanellope. He was about to wreck the old walls of the pub until Betty fired three shots rapidly on the floor a few inches from Ralph's feet. Naturally, Ralph covered Vanellope as a protective instinct.

"You take one more step big man" Betty said intensely, his pistol still smoking from the previous shots fired "And you'll find out what it means to die outside your game. Now don't move and let my boys tie you up if you want any chance of living.

Ralph and Vanellope were now stuck in a tough juxtaposition. They were both thinking quickly and on their feet. Felix and Calhoun were already tied up in rope and gags were stuck into their mouths. Ralph was trying to think of a way to save Vanellope while Vanellope was thinking of a way to get Ralph out of the pub safely until the doors of the pub swung open again.

The strange thing is that the doors opened slowly and quietly. They normally creaked and easily signaled when there was a guest entering the pub.

"Who are you?" Betty questioned with his pistol still in his hand, shifting his attention to the newcomer.

"No way" Ralph and Vanellope said in unison. Felix and Calhoun couldn't say anything but their eyes revealed their response of shock and surprise.

Victor Vector walked into the pub, calm as can be, and was looking around as if he was some observant tourist.

"You don't need to know" Victor said, smiling as he rubbed the dust off his hands "I do need you to do something for me. I want you to let these fine people go and if you could apologize to them for how entirely rude you were, that would be much appreciated. I mean, the reputation that _Pony Express _has is one of altruism, hospitality, and kindness. None of the three traits were honored today, sir."

Betty growled and aimed his gun at Victor.

"No time for games!" He shouted his pun as the rest of his gang gathered around him "I am the fastest gunslinger west of the Whac-a-mole, if you try to be all smart with me, I'll put a bullet in you faster than a jackrabbit chasing after a wagon full of carrots! You'll learn to say goodbye to your one and only precious life outside of your game!"

Victor had both of his hands in his pocket and he looked up to the ceiling to observe the holes in the roof.

"I speak only in truths" Victor explained soundly "First of all, I am not a video-game character, I am an anti-viral agent that works for a self-developed anti-virus software program. Second, by the time you put your finger on that trigger, I would have already landed a bullet in you and one of your henchmen. So I am only going to say this once, drop your gun, or I will drop it for you."

Betty chuckled and eyed his henchman.

"Can you believe this idiot?" he said, pointing at Victor with the thumb of his free hand "Now I'll make you an ultimatum. You have one chance to walk out of this game alive before I kill you right in front of all your friends." Victor still didn't budge a single inch "I'm gonna count to ten."

"ONE!" Betty shouted louder than necessary, Vanellope covered her ears as Ralph was still scheming of a plan to get out of there safely.

_This guy is crazy!_ Ralph thought to himself _He's going to get himself and us killed!_

He quickly whispered to Vanellope "Kid, we're going to get out of here, and I mean it when I say this, stay behind me at all times!"

"TWO!"

Victor shook his head in disapproval "Viruses" he shrugged in disappointment "they are all the same."

"THREE!" Betty yelled louder and louder as he counted up with his pistol still aimed directly at Victor.

"NINE!" he shouted obnoxiously, skipping six numbers.

Victor gave a funny look at Betty as he asked him

"So not only can't you count, but you also have no regard for your own life."

"TEN!"

**_BANG BANG BANG_**

Three shots were fired immediately after Betty finished his phrase and he dropped to the ground along with two of his henchmen. Betty's whole gang watched in horror to see that their gang leader fall to the floor along with two of their comrades. Ralph and Vanellope also were stupefied by what happened. Calhoun's and Felix's eyes widened to as wide as they could be. The Mario Brothers were just as shocked while Sonic was still blind folded and had no idea what was going on.

Victor's anti-viral pistol was in his right hand, just fired, and already loaded to fire more shots.

"Well I got two henchmen instead of one" he said with a grin "that was unexpected" Victor immediately looked over to Ralph and Vanellope "Use this for cover!" he continued firing at the rest of the henchmen as he gave a fierce kick to a table, sending it across the room over to Ralph and Vanellope.

Ralph picked up one of the henchmen and threw him across the pub and with utmost certainly, knocked him out cold. Ralph then used the table as projectile and threw it right at the Betty Boys. Most of them hit the floor but some were still frozen in bewilderment and didn't move out of the way of the table, only to be slammed across the pub.

"I meant for the table to be used as cover, Ralph" Victor said, chuckling a bit "Not as a giant wrecking ball"

"Kid!" Ralph shouted as he broke the nearest wall, ignoring Victor's comment "Get the Stinkbrain ready so we can get everyone out of here! I'll go get everyone else! Just get the car!"

"Ralph!" Vanellope protested, not wanting to leave Ralph behind.

"Just do it! I'll be okay!" Ralph wrecked a hole in the wall so that Vanellope could get out and then ran back towards the rest of the gang to engage them one by one. Betty's henchmen were still disoriented by what just happened to Betty and they didn't do much to react to the fact that Ralph was wrecking them one-by –one and Victor was rapidly gunning each one of them down.

Betty raised his hand and shouted at his gang

"What are ya'll idiots doing?!" He shouted as he struggled to give orders "Kill that stinking suit-man and all his friends! Even the ones tied up! Let none of them esca...AHHHHHHH MY GOD" Victor shot right through the hand that Betty was using to give orders "you stinking pink-bellied rat! You rotten son of a bi…AHHHHH MY GOD, MY OTHER HAND!"

Victor reloaded his pistol as he shouted to the injured gang-leader who began crying in pain.

"Next one is to the head!"


	7. Chapter 7: The Pony Shootout Continued

**CHAPTER 7**

"Let's get em!" shouted one of the Betty Boy goons.

At this point, of the seventeen Betty Boy bandits that were originally up on their feet, ten of them, including Betty, were already down on the ground either because Ralph wrecked them with his sheer strength or because they got gunned down by Victor.

The remaining seven bandits whipped out their pistols and fired shot after shot.

**_BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG _**

Ralph, despite being such a big target for the bandits, was able to find additional tables to use as cover while Victor went behind the wooden bar counter to reload his weapon.

"Let's get the prisoners outside!" shouted the tallest of the remaining Betty Boy gangsters.

"That's impossible!" one of them responded "There's five prisoners and we need to take care of these two fools first!"

Betty, still writhing in pain, begged for help as bullets whistled around. Ralph found whatever he could to use as projectiles. He started throwing root beer glasses, stools, chairs, and additional tables at the Betty Boys.

"I'M GONNA WRECK IT" he shouted his trademark line as he threw a broken root beer bottle at one of the Betty Boys.

Ralph hit one of the bandits directly in the stomach. The force from the projectile launched the bandit ten feet back towards the wall and knocked him out cold.

"Nice hit!" Victor shouted as he came out of his cover from the counter on the other side of the bar.

With two quick shots, an additional two bandits were shot down. Only four remained standing and they were losing their composure extremely quickly.

"Boy's!" Said the tall one as he dropped his pistol in fear "Let's get the hell out of here!"

The four remaining bandits made a run for it to the back of the pub. Ralph managed to hit another one of them with a stool while Victor shot one more in the leg. The two bandits that were left standing managed to reach the door. As the tall bandit turned the door knob, he noticed that the backdoor began to shake with tremors and that there was a rumbling sound of an engine on the other side.

"What the…"

**CRASHHHHHHHHH**

Vanellope drove through the backdoor and the two bandits with the S.S Stinkbrain. The impact from Vanellope's kart made the two goons deflect off the front of the car all the way to Ralph's feet.

"Kid!" Ralph shouted in excitement "You're amazing!"

Smiling, Vanellope responded.

"Tell me something I don't know." She turned around in her driver's seat and noticed that there was a bandit on the ground behind her kart, struggling to reach for his pistol "Hold on, gotta reverse this baby."

**VROOM**

The Stinkbrain jerked violently backwards a few meters and the back of the car struck the goon right in the head. He proceeded to moan a bit before passing out. Ralph laughed in approval.

"How'd I do?" Vanellope asked Ralph with her trademark adorable puppy eyes.

Ralph beamed with pride, as a father would over his daughter.

"As I said, fart feathers, amazing."

* * *

Victor Vector began kicking all the dropped weapons to the side of the pub to make sure that none of the wounded bandits would be able to reach for them. Ralph and Vanellope swiftly untied the rest of their friends.

"Jimminy Jamminy!" Felix exclaimed as Vanellope removed the gag from his mouth "I'm so glad that you guys are okay!"

"I gotta say" Calhoun said as she wiped herself of dust from being on the floor "That was quite impressive. Ralph, I didn't know you had such a fighting spirit in you"

The Mario Brothers gave thumbs up in praise.

"_Mamma mia!_ That was our fault for getting beat up!" Mario explained as he put his arm around Luigi, giving him a little nudge as a joke "But you guys were fantastical!"

Sonic got up on his feet and ran around the pub just to get a feeling of being free again.

"Won't make that mistake again!" he said, patting his red speed shoes "Don't want to make it game over for me!"

Though the heroes were in a celebratory mood after their triumph over the bandits, Victor still looked serious despite the fact that situation lightened up a bit. He walked over to Betty who was barely alive on the floor. Victor pulled him up, propped him in one of the remaining chairs in the pub, and began questioning him.

"You ready to help me out?" Victor said, crouching down to Betty's level.

"Please!" Betty cried "I lose! Okay!? I lose! Just don't make it game over for me! Please don't hurt me, it wasn't my idea! I swear to God! Please! Waaahhhhhhhh!"

All of a sudden, the rough and tough image that Betty put on just moments ago was gone completely.

"What a tool" Victor muttered under his breath.

* * *

Moments later, the mayor along with some of the townies of _Pony Express _walked into the pub.

"My gosh!" said one of the lady townies "The pub is destroyed. This is awful, even if we get Jerry back; the gamers are going to hate seeing this! We'll get unplugged anyway!"

Ralph, Calhoun, and Vanellope winked at Felix, who smiled at the mayor and pulled out his golden magic hammer.

"I can fix-it!" He said buoyantly "And I'll fix up those patches in the roof, the tables, chairs, stools, doors, everything! I'll make it better than it was before!"

While Felix was patching up the Central Pub, the townies and Mayor started rounding up all the wounded bandits on the floor. None of them were dead, some close to death, but they were just hurt pretty bad in various ways. This is acceptable to the overly nice people of _Pony Express _because a lot of the Betty Boy Bandits weren't even from the game. They were just bad guys that the townies have no sympathy for. On the other side of the pub, Victor tried to calm Betty down.

"I can't stop!" Betty bawled "I'm so scared."

Victor sighed in response to the way Betty was conducting himself, it was as if Victor had more respect for Betty as a rough bad guy as opposed to a scaredy-cat prisoner

"First question" Victor began "Where's the sheriff?"

"In the closet! WAaaaah!" he answered, still crying.

The mayor immediately walked up to the closet and opened it to find the sheriff of _Pony Express _tied up in a chair with a gag in his mouth. The mayor quickly untied him and asked him,

"Are you okay, Sheriff?" the mayor said, helping the sheriff up on his feet.

"I'll be all right" he said with a typical southern accent. He was roughed up pretty bad but he still had a pretty good hold of himself "Looks like you guys took care of em Betty Boys. "

"Actually," the mayor explained "it was these fellers right here." He pointed to the whole 'fellowship', "Ralph, Calhoun, Felix, Vanellope, the Mario Brothers, and Sonic! Aren't we blessed to have all these amazing heroes intervene for our sake?"

"Well I'll be darned" said the sheriff, hands on his hips "Seems like we got a celebrity meeting going on here! I gotta say, ya'll did a pretty nifty job at rounding up these Betty Boys. I'll be able to take it from here."

Victor put a hand up and said quickly.

"Hold on" he said as he continued to interrogate Betty, "Where's the horse."

"I don't know!" Betty wailed, Victor nodded his head and took out his pistol.

The townies, Ralph and the gang, and everyone else gasped.

"Vic" Ralph said, "We already took them out, don't need to go to extremes, man!"

Betty continued to break down as he tried explaining through his tears.

"I really don't know! I really…" he had to sniff and collect himself "I really don't know! Ranny left just a bit before ya'll walked in here. He told me to bring the pony to the pub and that he'd take care of the rest! I swear to Jesus, that's all I know!"

Victor came to a sudden realization.

"Ralph" Victor said with a sense of urgency as hit put his antiviral pistol back in his jacket "How did you know to come to the central pub."

"Well," Ralph answered, a bit taken back by Victor's determined composure "We drove past some old lady and her husband and they told us that they locked up Sonic at the Pub…"

"Old lady?" Victor said in confusion, he then asked the mayor, "Mr. Mayor, I don't know much about your game but I know that it's not THAT old. Are there any old people in this town?"

The mayor looked up and thought for a moment.

"Come to think of it" he replied, "No really old people in this part. Honestly speaking, the oldest people in this town are me and bad Betty over there. And in regards to the ladies, no old ladies in this part."

Victor turned his attention back to Ralph.

"Keep talking to me, Ralph."

"As I was saying" he continued, this time Vanellope, Felix, and Calhoun became interested in the conversation, "We ran into some old couple who told us that Sonic was locked up at the Pub. She told us that there would only be five or six 'viruses' at the pub and I figured that we'd be able to take them, but there were a lot more than we expected. It's as if they knew we were coming…"

Ralph just realized what happened.

"Mario, Luigi" Victor said with the same amount of urgency, "I'm assuming you were behind Ralph and his group?"

"Yes, we were" Mario said in his strong Italian accent "and we also ran into an old Lady who told us that everyone was being locked up at the pub. She also said that there were only a couple bad guys, so Luigi and I figured we could take them."

After a brief moment of silence, Victor explained what he just deduced from the whole situation.

"That old lady you bumped into," he began solemnly, and for the first time, Ralph, Vanellope, Felix, Calhoun, and everyone else were extremely willing to listen to what Victor had to say.

"She is not a part of this game. When she saw you riding in your kart from Sugar Rush, she figured out very quickly that you were not a part of this game either. She knew that all of you were here to deal with the issue about Jerry Jack the Pony. They must have locked up Sonic much earlier, right?"

Everyone turned their eyes towards Sonic.

"Hey!" Sonic said, thinking of way to defend himself "I know I dropped the ball on this one, I was just too eager to do the heroic thing, ya know? I got here light years before the rest of you. At first, there were six of these goons and truthfully, I hate to admit this, but I couldn't take em. They beat me up and locked me up in a box and I really don't remember anything after that"

"As I've suspected" Victor continued lecturing to the rest of the characters "There may have only been a couple bad guys to start out with, but what happened was that they knew that Sonic couldn't have been alone. They sent someone, this lady, towards the station that leads to the outside world. She sent you guys into a trap, and they were waiting for you. She was a part of this whole scheme to get this game unplugged."

Victor took a deep breath, knowing that the frank truth would be hard to take.

"That lady, whoever she is, is a virus as well, a polymorphic virus to be exact, and she knows where the Pony is."

Ralph hit his face with his hand.

"How could I be so stupid!?" he questioned himself.

"Ralph!" Felix exclaimed, patting him on the back "No need to blame yourself, all right?"

Victor donned out his antiviral pistol and loaded it.

"Vanellope, can you do me a favor?"

She looked up at Victor but didn't give him a verbal response.

"Can you drive me to the spot where you found her? I need to track this polymorphic freak; she's the only one that knows where the pony is. If we want to save this game, we will have to find this old woman and that man she was with."

Vanellope nodded her head, a bit shocked as well as impressed with the way Victor was conducting everything.

"I'm coming too" Ralph said, "Anywhere she goes, I go too."

Victor smiled with approval.

"Fair enough" he replied "You don't find that kind of fidelity these days all too often."

"You and your big words" Ralph muttered, Victor only chuckled in response.

"Felix" Victor began, giving out orders like a colonel "You stay here and fix all the constructional damages that have been inflicted here. Calhoun, Sonic, Mario, Luigi, you guys should stick around here in case something stirs up in town. I am sure that this isn't over yet."

The mayor walked up to Victor and asked him

"What should I do mister?"

"Come with us," Victor answered to the mayor "there's a chance I could be wrong so that's why I want you to identify this woman. If you can't, we know she's a virus for sure."

"We got a Pony to rescue." Victor announced to the rest of the characters.

Ralph and Vanellope snickered in unison as she got in the driver's seat and Ralph got on the back. The mayor took a seat in the back under Ralph's cover. Victor, despite being typically an extremely solemn and serious character, also laughed a bit with them.

"It sounds silly, doesn't?" he said happily "You know what I mean, we gotta do what's…"

"Hey, fancy –suit man" Vanellope interrupted, "I don't know your name, so I'll call you a bunch of nicknames that I make up on the spot until I learn it. Are you getting in the car or what? You seem to know what you're doing fancy-pants, so ride shot gun."

Victor popped right into the Stinkbrain and prepared his weapon as Vanellope sped outside the central pub to go into the desert.

"Took ya long enough" Vanellope said as she drove into the deserts of _Pony Express_, "Hey Ralph! I got one for ya!"

"What?" Ralph asked in response.

"What do you call a game where a man in a suit has to rescue a Pony?"

Seeing where this was going, Ralph tried to hold back his laughter.

"What?"

"Pony's _Doodie!"_


	8. Chapter 8: The man in the Checkered Suit

**CHAPTER 8**

It only took Vanellope a few minutes to steer the S.S Stinkbrain to the same spot on the outskirts of the town where they encountered the old couple. The same dusty area had nothing too distinct about it. Vanellope and Ralph were certain that this was where they encountered the old couple

"The dust is getting into my eyes" Vanellope complained as she used one hand to reach for her pink racing goggles.

"This is it" Ralph pointed out to a patch full of sand and two cactuses "That was where we saw the old lady and old man."

Victor pulled out a small electronic device that looked like a little light bulb, beeped and flashed green lights rhythmically. As Victor adjusted the direction in which he was pointing the small device, the beeping got more intense in one specific direction.

"North" Victor pointed intensely "They are not too far."

"What is that?" Asked Ralph, a bit surprised at the device Victor was holding.

"A viral tracking device developed by my owner, Ayala" Victor answered "By the way" Victor shifted his attention to Vanellope, relaxing a little bit "My name is Victor Vector."

Smiling, Vanellope shifted gears and drove in the direction Victor pointed to.

"Victor Vector, Double V." Vanellope replied "I like it! I'll call you that from now on or maybe Vic Vec, or Vec Vic, hehe"

"Whatever floats your kart" Victor laughed in response with his pun.

Vanellope kept steering the S.S Stinkbrain in the direction that Victor and his tracking device instructed them to go. The mayor took out a handkerchief to wipe off some of the dust that getting on his face as the Stinkbrain piled up dust clouds as it sped through the desert. The mayor suddenly dropped his handkerchief and exclaimed with shock.

"Is that?" the mayor said, caught with surprise.

Reacting to the mayors actions and noticing something strange coming up on the path, Vanellope slowed down her driving a bit. It looked like a mounted creature, but reptilian in structure as well. It was drinking water out of a cactus. Ralph figured out what the animal coming up ahead was.

"That's Mario and Luigi's Yoshi!" Ralph stated "What is it doing all the way out here?"

The Yoshi drinking water out of the cactus looked up with curiosity at the incoming kart. Vanellope parked close to the Yoshi. This Yoshi, along with all members of the Yoshi species, only communicate in sounds of 'gongs' and 'hups'. This Yoshi would also sometimes say the phrase "Yoshi" over again.

"Can you understand it?" the mayor asked everyone in general.

Vanellope turned over to mayor and answered sarcastically.

"We are all fluent in yoshinese" she said, attempting to crack another joke "no worries Mister Mayor!"

The Yoshi tried to voice its concern and it continuously kept trying to convey some sort of message with a series of verbalization through 'gongs', 'hups', saying its name over and over again, and though some physical motions. Not even Victor was completely sure what kind of statement the Yoshi was trying to communicate.

"What is it doing?" Victor asked no one in particular.

Growling a bit in frustration, the Yoshi pointed north decisively with its tiny stick-like arms as it stamped its feet.

"Let's keep going north and see what we hit" Victor suggested and proceeded to thank the Yoshi "You did good, dinosaur. Go back to town and meet up with Mario and Luigi."

The Yoshi nodded his head and gave an affirmative 'hup' before it began running back the opposite direction towards the town, leaving a small trail of dust behind its speedy legs.

"Vic" Ralph started, scratching his head a bit "Do you think that the guys who beat up the Mario brothers are nearby?"

"I'm not sure" Victor replied "But the old couple that deceived you is definitely within the vicinity" he continued as he turned his Virus Detection device on, only to beep extremely intensely.

"They are close." He said, clenching his device in a decisive manner "Keep driving north, Vanellope, until we see the old couple."

"DOUBLE V!" Vanellope exclaimed with a mix of excitement and shock "Straight ahead! I see em!"

The old couple walked at a very slow pace, and if this was in any other situation, they would look like a peaceful, typical elderly couple. To Ralph and Vanellope, it's deception to the third degree and they had all the alacrity to unmask it.

The old lady turned around only to see Vanellope's candy go-kart driving very slowly beside them.

"I'm glad that you're safe." She said sincerely as she recognized who they were, or so it seems.

Ralph pointed at her in anger as Vanellope cruised the kart to match the very slow pace of the couple.

"I'm not buying that anymore, lady" Ralph said, pointing at her with his huge hands "What's going on under that skin of elderly-deceiving darkness?"

The old lady, along with the man, looked shock and were almost speechless.

"I…I…I…"the woman stammered "I don't know what to say. I am just glad that none of you sweet fellers got hurt, that's all. We heard the good news…"

Victor took command of the situation.

"Vanellope," he said in an almost intimidating tone "Stop the car."

Victor hopped out of the kart and motioned for the old couple to stop moving.

"You're the feller" the woman began "The one who completely ignored us. It's all right though, as long as you didn't get hurt…"

Not dignifying her statement with a relevant response, Victor asked the mayor to get out of the car.

"I have a question for you" Victor said to the woman and the man "Where are you from?"

"We're from here!" The woman insisted "We've been here ever since the game was plugged in eleven years ago! If you going to treat this as an interrogation, I'll tell you young man, I'll find it very rude and improper and we'll be on our way."

Ralph bumped into the question-asking.

"You knew that we were walking right into those Betty Boy scums!" Ralph said loudly, cracking his knuckles "and it really seems to me that you aren't who you say you are."

"We" the woman said in all seriousness and in a bit of anger "are residents of _Pony Express_. We have never left the town before and my husband and I normally take long strolls when the arcade is closed."

The mayor stepped in front of the old couple, looking at them with disappointment.

"Then you would have no problem telling me what my name is." The mayor stated, "You have a minute until I let these characters take care of you."

The woman gasped in shock.

"Mister Mayor!" She replied, hands on her hips "This is absolutely insulting, humiliating…"

"What's so hard about the question?" The mayor answered, looking at her with a sense of advantage over her "If you are truly a member of our proud community, miss, you would have no problem telling me what my name is."

The woman and her partner stayed silent for a moment. The woman started to look more nervous as time passed and she kept stammering.

"I…I…You know this is preposterous" was all she could say. The man looked just as confused on what to do.

"Ralph, Victor" The mayor said, standing tall and acting with more authority than he usually does "They are all yours. If they really were citizens of _Pony Express_, they would know without a doubt that my name is 'Mayor'. _Mayor _the Mayor of _Pony Town_."

A male voice began to laugh, and it wasn't the mayor, Ralph, Victor, or even the old man.

"What the…" the mayor, Vanellope, and Ralph said in unity. Victor was not as surprised.

"That woman just laughed like a man!" Vanellope screamed, taking off her pink goggles, still not believing what just happened "What's going on?"

The woman kept laughing in that male voice and looked up to the sky. She then said in a man's voice.

"Well I guess that wasn't too smooth. I must have lost some of my groove along the way."

The woman began to morph into a male figure. During the process, she was suddenly pixelating and it looked as if she was peeling off the skin of her body. Slowly, the head came off to reveal a male's head with dark brown hair and very white teeth. As her chest came off, a black and white checkered blazer or jacket was seen and it matched the checkered black pants he was wearing as the legs of the women came off. It was a strange experience for everyone watching. To Ralph, it looked as though the old lady literally took off her body to present herself as a tall man with dark brown hair and a completely black and white checkered suit.

The old man next to him also transformed through the same process. He suddenly turned into a character that also appeared very tall. He had midnight blue hair, wore a blue tunic, cape, pants, gloves, boots, and even donned a blue breastplate across his chest. Everything about him was trademarked by blue. He is also someone that is very well-known in the world of video games.

"That's Marth!" Ralph shouted out with surprise "From _Super Smash Brothers _and _Fire Emblem!"_

The checkered suit man wiped off the dust off his jacket as he reached into his pocket for a business card and flicked it at Ralph.

"Well big-man" he said as his smiled showed off extremely white teeth "The name's Ranny Checkerman. I'm the new guy on the block. I like to label myself as a 'gaming capitalist'."

Ranny's voice had modulating qualities to it. He sounds extremely controlled and as many characters hate to admit it, he could be pleasant to listen to at times. His voice was silvery, clear, and easy to understand. His conducted himself in a charming demeanor, but many who interact with Ranny can sense other intentions.

"You all, or as they say here, _y'all,_ seem impressed by that smooth move we just did" He starting saying in an almost threatening tone "Now I suggest that we all keep our groove, baby, and take this easy before I have to start showing off more of my moves that will be just as impressive but not as appreciated."

Marth unsheathed his long sword and Ranny opened up his jacket to reveal a jeweled pistol. Ranny proceeded to grin and nod his head in a fashion of disapproval of the characters around him.

"What do you say, baby?"


	9. Chapter 9: A Glitchy Situation

**CHAPTER 9**

Ralph clenched his fists, partly out of nervousness and out of preparation for a fight that seems inevitable.

"Perhaps there is a diplomatic solution to all of this" Ranny suggested mockingly "You all probably want your pony back, right? How about an exchange?"

"Diplomatic?" Victor said sarcastically, donning his own antiviral pistol in his right hand. "There is nothing about you that marks you as a diplomat".

Ranny eyed Victor's pistol and looked back at him.

"Do we always have to resort to violence, old pal?" Ranny said sharply "You took out poor Betty, that's fine, he was practically useless anyway."

Vanellope chimed into the discussion.

"What do you want with this game anyway?" she asked with a bit of naiveté "You're not even a part of this arcade!"

Chuckling in response, Ranny continued.

"You guys win!" he said, smiling a deceiving smile "There's no point to take this any further, baby. Don't need to beat this poor old puppy to death. You took out the bad guys that I tried to put in power of this game and now we are forced to runaway to continue scheming our next diabolical plan. Come on now. Vic…"

"Don't…" Victor said astringently, cranking up his arm and aiming his antiviral pistol right at Ranny's head "Call me that again."

"Short history lesson!" Ranny exclaimed "For the new guys. The good ol' cop here had me cornered a few years ago over at the Ayala Café. He was extremely confident, competent, and all that good stuff. Still is, if I say so myself. He had me right in his crosshairs and he could have taken the shot. But he didn't, and I got away, and now I'm more viral than ever, baby! Ever since then, I've been sure to not make the same mistake, and learned from his mistake too. Won't be in that kind of situation anymore! It's free sailing from here on out."

Victor was visibly irritated and slightly humiliated by Ranny's disclosure.

"So how about a peaceful resolution," Ranny offered, buttoning up his jacket, no longer revealing his weapon. "Hear me out."

"The girl," Ranny pointed at Vanellope "For the pony. Sounds fair?"

"WHAT?" Vanellope yelled with absolute shock.

Ralph, in anger, smashed the ground with his two large fists, sending tremors across the desert floor.

"That's quite a temper you got there, Donkey Kong." Ranny said jokingly.

Ralph swung his finger at Ranny with an absolutely threatening undertone to his gesture.

"If you take one step closer to this kid," Ralph said, boiling red with agitation "I'll wreck the both of you!"

"Hold your horses, angry man" Ranny warned him, patting his jacket "Three reasons why you wouldn't want to do that. First reason is the guy next to me, well, you know him, he's a prince and he's also one of the best swordsmen in the gaming world. He'll cut you up pretty bad if you don't know what you're doing. The second reason is that if you do something stupid, good luck finding the pony! I won't tell you where the little horse is! You better pray you find it before opening time or else this game is going to the dump!"

"And baby makes three," as he patted his jacket, referring to himself "I'm packing too and as your cop friend would know here, I'm dangerous."

The standstill continued for a few seconds longer until Vanellope broke the silence as she jumped out of the driver's seat onto Ralph's shoulders.

"Okay, you giant chess board" she said insultingly to Ranny "I'll turn myself in. It's a deal"

Ralph looked over at Vanellope with concern and surprise.

"Kid! What are you doing?" Ralph said in a mixture of sadness and stress.

_"Don't worry, I got it under control" _Vanellope whispered lightly into Ralph's big ear.

Vanellope continued talking to Ranny "But you gotta get us a map, or least tell us where the pony is, first, before this becomes official."

Ranny laughed "Other way around, sweetie. Come to me first and then you get the pony. That's how you deal with the Ran-man."

"Fine" Vanellope said as she leapt off of Ralph's shoulders. During that very brief, quick leap, she winked at Victor Vector before landing right in front of Ranny.

"I don't know what you want me for" Vanellope said to the man in the checkered suit "But we had a deal. Tell my pal's over here where the pony is."

Smiling with satisfaction, Ranny replied.

"All right sweetheart" he said "I may be a virus, but I keep my word…_sometimes. _We buried the pony about twenty meters south of the pub. Don't worry, if you get there in time, he should probably be alive." Very swiftly, he pulled out his jeweled gun with red diamonds on the barrel on the pistol "You're coming me with me, you glitchy broad."

Marth took out strands of rope from one of his satchels and began wrapping Vanellope's arms.

"Guys!" Vanellope shouted over to Ralph and Victor as she looked over to them "Now!"

**_GLITCH_**

Vanellope, utilizing her trademark superpower that she displayed in sugar rush during the reign of King Candy and the same superpower that players and gamers adore her for, she glitched over from Marth's grasps right onto Ralph's shoulders again, leaving behind a soft trail of blue pixels. The ropes which Marth placed on Vanellope's hand simply fell to the floor. Vanellope followed that display of her glitch abilities with a raspberry directed at Ranny and Marth.

Once Vanellope was safely in Ralph's reach, Victor immediately fired shots at Ranny and Marth. Marth was able to deflect the bullets with a counter move with his famous Sword of Light, _Falchion._ Ranny brandished his jeweled gun and snarled,

"Suit yourself, baby."

"Let's get out of here!" Victor shouted as he evaded bullets fired from Ranny's pistol "Now! Mayor! Get in the kart!"

Ranny emptied his chamber, attempting to shoot Victor, and began reloading his pistol once his chamber ran out of bullets. Marth charged up to the kart swiftly, his footsteps only making the slightest sound. Ralph swung several blows at Marth with his large arms, all of which he missed. Victor Vector put his antiviral pistol back in his holster and unsheathed his very own antiviral blade. The blade was very plain and round and didn't look as presentational as Marth's _Falchion, _but it was very light and maneuverable. Before Marth could land an attack on Ralph, Victor managed to block Marth's move with his blade.

Victor proceeded to duel Marth right in front of Vanellope's kart. Marth was immediately on the attack. Victor managed to block each strike from Marth's blade but without being to take the offensive in the sword-fight, Marth was free to continue slashing ferociously at Victor and yelled every time he made an attack. Vanellope revved up the engine of her kart and shouted out to Ralph and the mayor.

"Guys!" She yelled with urgency "Hurry up and move your molasses!"

Ranny finished reloading his jeweled weapon and took his aim at Ralph.

"You asked for it, baby." Ranny said plainly as he fired two shots.

Instinctively, Ralph closed his eyes but was surprised that he didn't feel any pain. He couldn't believe that he didn't feel two gunshots. He slowly opened his eyes to realize that the mayor had been hit and was on the ground moaning in pain.

"Oh, how sweet" Ranny said mockingly "The mayor jumped in front of you and took a couple bullets for you. I hope that makes you feel guilty, you dirty ape."

"Mayor!" Ralph exclaimed as he picked him up into the S.S Stinkbrain.

The mayor's only verbalization was a couple quiet moans of pain. Vanellope, trying to soak in everything going on around her, naturally felt very anxious during the whole debacle. She made sure that the mayor was safely placed in the back seat with Ralph but realized that Victor wasn't in the kart.

"Double V!" She shouted, realizing that even though Victor heard her, he was busy parrying and blocking incoming attacks from Marth's offensive.

Shifting the gears of the Stinkbrain, Vanellope sped as fast as she could towards Marth. Before her kart collided with the blue prince, he jumped backwards very quickly and by the time he looked up, Victor had already gotten into the front seat of the Stinkbrain and Vanellope drove the car off into the desert, leaving behind clouds of dust that covered their trail.

Marth just kept looking at the dust clouds in disappointment.

"I could have killed him if I wanted to." Marth said to Ranny, who in contrast, did not look nearly as pressured.

"He's alive for a reason, Marth." Ranny answered as he put his gun back into his jacket "Now let's get out of this game before every good guy in this arcade comes after us."


	10. IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

**IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT **

Thank you everyone that has been following the story so far! The few reviews I have received have all been generous and encouraging.

I personally, obviously, adore the original story behind Wreck-It-Ralph and after watching the movie several times, it sparked my creative bug. I never wrote fanfiction before and I never really considered myself a real writer naturally. =p

So basically it has come to the point is I want people's input on whether I should continue the story or not. Currently, what you guys are reading, is 'act 1', and I originally had it planned for 3 acts. Act 1 is coming to its closing stage and basically the message I'm trying to get across is that I'll keep writing for me, but I'll condense the story if it seems to drag and I'm really open to suggestions/constructive criticisms right now. Even OC's will be considered! If for some reason, that the story is more loved than I initially believe it to be, than I'll stick with my original plan of writing out the three acts of my story. Feel free to tell me what you honestly think of this piece, whether you love it, hate it, or somewhere in-between. I'm all ears and ready to think critically. :)

-rhcpfan123


	11. Chapter 10: Pony Conclusions

**CHAPTER 10**

"He's hardly breathing!" Ralph yelled out over the noise of the Stinkbrain's humming engine as he held the wounded Mayor of _Pony Express_ in his arms.

"Don't worry" Victor replied calmly in the front seat "It's his own game, he will regenerate, granted it may take a while."

Ralph attempted to rejuvenate the mayor by performing some form of CPR. He leaned in on the Mayor's face, suckling his lips and got just about an inch from the Mayors mouth before the Mayor slapped Ralph and exclaimed,

"I'm hurt! But not badly enough that I want you kissing me! I'll be okay" he insisted.

Vanellope kept looking in the rearview mirrors with a bit of sweat streaming from her forehead. Victor put his hand on her right shoulder and told her,

"Hey, don't worry" he explained, comforting her a little bit "They won't be coming after us. We lost em."

She responded with a nervous but genuine smile and replied to Victor,

"That was cool, tracking down a big virus and all" she grabbed the steering wheel a bit more firmly as she also said "but it was a bit scary, pretending to give myself up to that freaky polka-dot suit-man."

"I know" Victor answered "But it's all over for now. What you did out there just now was fearless and I have the utmost respect for you doing that. In my opinion, you're the primary reason why this game will be saved. I wouldn't have been able to extract the pony's location that easily."

"In all seriousness" Victor continued, sighing a little bit "I'm glad that you're the way you are. Thank you for helping me, Vanellope."

Vanellope glowed red, both out of flattery and surprise. Ralph noticed her cheeks radiating a redness he has never observed before.

They managed to return to the town within a couple minutes. Immediately, Ralph, Vanellope, Victor, and even the mayor who was only partly conscious noticed that the town looked revived and newer. Everything about it was better, people looked happier, talked happier, and the town itself looked cleaner. Not as much dust balls flying around, the roads were as good as new, and the pub was restored to a form of glory it has never reached before.

In the center of the town was Felix, flipping his hammer in the air with cheers of support coming from the town settlers of _Pony Express _bellowing around him. Calhoun was by his side, kissing him on the cheek as Felix turned honey-glow red.

"I can fix-it!" said Felix as he caught his hammer with his right hand and put it back into his left pocket.

"Well, well!" Ralph exclaimed, hands on his hips "Can't help your helping habit, can ya?"

"There was just so much to fix" Felix replied "Honestly, it looked as though you wrecked the place!"

Ralph laughed half-heartedly.

"Haha, that's funny Felix." He responded and then said under his breath "Typical Felix joke…"

"OH!" Ralph exclaimed, just coming to a sudden realization "You've used your hammer to fix your face before, right?"

"Uhh, yes I did." Felix answered.

Ralph picked up the wounded Mayor off the back of the candy kart. The townies gasped when they saw their mayor hardly alive and wounded with two bullet holes in his chest.

"Can you fix these?" Ralph asked, holding the Mayor with his two large arms.

Felix went over to inspect the Mayors damages. He grimaced at the sight of the two gun wounds.

"Sorry," Felix said, slightly closing his eyes "It's just seeing the pixel wounds on a character can always be quite disturbing. It's not you Mayor, it's just the, wow, and you lost a lot of pixels."

"This will be a tricky fix." Felix concluded as he began to wield his hammer "I never worked that much with pixel wounds before."

The townies stacked several mattresses out in front of the pub to rest of the mayor on before he went under the knife, or 'hammer' in this case. Calhoun sat by the mayor to check for a pulse and do all the standard things she was taught to do from the academy in _Heros Duty_. Felix began attempting stitching up the wound his hammer. He hit it lightly a couple times and then oriented the hammer differently with each hit. After a few swings of his hammer, he began noticing that the wounds on the mayor began to close up. Felix continued hitting it at angles that seemed to help and stop hitting at points where nothing happened or if the mayor responded with a moan of pain.

"Fix-It-Felix Jr…"The mayor said, short of breath "I did not know you were healer as well…"

"I guess I'm not only just Fix-It-Felix Jr," he replied as he continued to work on the wounds "But heal-it-Felix as well!"

"Ughhhhhh" the Mayor moaned, "Jerry…."

"Don't worry!" Ralph said as he rushed off to the pub "I'm on it."

When he got in front of the pub, he asked around,

"Which way is south? The virus said that the pony is buried about twenty feet south of the pub."

The sheriff, who seems to have made a full recovery from the wounds he sustained from the Betty Boys, happily and politely pointed towards the back of the pub. Ralph ran off as he exclaimed,

"I got some wrecking to do!"

Ralph started pounding the ground with his large fists, digging into the earth rapidly in the same way that he dug a track for Vanellope just several days before so she could learn how to drive. Within just a few minutes, Ralph saw the hoof a pony.

"Jerry!" Ralph shouted as he started to be gentler with his digging.

The sheriff and other townies watched as Ralph dug out Jerry, who coughed as Ralph unearthed the damaged little pony. Jerry seemed well and alive, despite the shock that he endured during the episode of being buried underground. He licked Ralph's face and looked at him with his warm, dark, black eyes which seem to smile at the sight of his savior.

"All right, all right" Ralph laughed as he tried to get Jerry to stop licking him "I'm glad you're okay too, mister horsie."

The townies cheered at the sight of their beloved pony. They broke out cases of root beer and prepared a feast as a celebration for everyone that was involved in the rescue of _Pony Express._ The sheriff personally went over to Ralph and grabbed his hand firmly, thanking him sincerely,

"You don't know how much we owe you…" The sheriff went off; nearly in tears "Our game is saved. Mr. Litwak will see that our game is functional after all and we'll be able to keep delivering mail to the fine people of _Pony Express_."

"Oh come on!" Ralph replied as he pointed to the rest of his friends, "I really couldn't have done it alone. Gotta say though, it was quite an adventure. "

He looked over at Felix who was still operating on the mayor.

"Though," he said with a bit of regret "I am sorry that your mayor…"

"Don't worry about it!" The sheriff laughed "The old man's tougher than he looks. He'll be fine."

The mayor jumped up from the mattresses he was lying on and exclaimed

"Gosh! I feel so much better already!" he looked at himself in awe and felt the spots where the wounds were earlier "Wow, Felix, it is as if nothing happened here. You really do fix everything!"

The sheriff continued smiling after realizing that even the mayor whose been shot twice was okay.

"Ralph, Felix, and everyone" The mayor continued, taking off his hat and bowing to them "Not only will the game not have to be unplugged because of all of your actions today, but with order restored and reestablished firmer than ever, I think this game will become more popular because of what y'all did. I mean, look at how nice our pub is and how amazing these roads look!"

"I know that y'all must be so busy, but please consider celebrating with us with some root bear and other refreshments."

Ralph looked over to Felix, both of them nodding their heads in agreement.

"Why not?" they both said in unison, justifying celebration with the fact they had three more hours until the arcade opened.

* * *

The townies were extremely eager to get a chance to meet everyone involved in the rescuing of _Pony Express_. They wanted Mario and Luigi's autograph, they wanted to touch Sonic's red speed shoe, have a ride on Yoshi, rub Felix's magic hammer, see Vanellope glitch, observe Calhoun's high-definition beauty, and even to shake Ralph's large hands. Victor Vector was still a bit unknown to the town, despite his contribution in the rescuing of _Pony Express_. To the townies, it really was a meeting of heroes and celebrities.

"Mayor," Victor said as he helped himself to a bottle of root beer, "What happened to the Betty Boys that you took into custody?"

The mayor explained "Well we hired a new 'bad guy' to disrupt the player from delivering mail and not violently. The rest of em Betty Boy's, locked up, and we won't hear from em. Do you suggest anything Victor? I understand this is your expertise."

Victor grinned and told the mayor,

"No worries, Mayor, you've got it under control." He held up his bottle of root beer and asked "Cheers?"

The two clanked the bottles of root beer that they had and proceeded to drink them. Felix and Calhoun sat at their own table, having an exclusive and romantic celebratory dinner by themselves. The other characters made sure to leave them alone and to give them their much desired privacy. Ralph sat outside the pub on the ground, just looking at the dry western sky of _Pony Express_, beside him, his best-friend.

"Hey Ralph" Vanellope said as she put her hands together in a cutely manner "You wanna get me a root beer?"

Without a verbal response, Ralph threw her an extra bottle he had in his pocket.

"Ralph" Vanellope's voice becoming tremulous from the excitement "You know I never had root beer before…"

"Never?" exclaimed Ralph "What are you waiting for kid? Drink!"

Still holding the bottle with both of her hands, Vanellope kept looking at it as if to make sure that it were real.

"This…is…impossible!" Vanellope yelled with excitement "I can't believe that I'm going to have root beer for the first time ever! This is the first step to proclaiming and cementing my status as a true character in the big world! Oh my gosh…I might _vurp!_"

Ralph rolled his eyes with a smile.

"Vurp?" Ralph responded "A vomit and a burp, right kid?"

"YES!" she said as she glitched right behind Ralph to give him a hug "And you can taste it!? Oh my gosh, this is unreal!"

"Now!" she continued as she attempted to twist the cap off the bottle. She struggled for a little bit until she handed the bottle to Ralph, asking him with eyes of a puppy,

"Can you get this cap off for me, pweaaaase?" she asked dramatically and sweetly.

Ralph flicked off the cap of the root beer bottle with his pinky and Vanellope instantly started drinking several gulps of the root beer.

"Oh my gosh!" she shouted as she started jumping up and down with enormous amounts of energy "This is so crazy! I never got the chance to drink root beer before! Ya know, since I couldn't leave my game and they don't serve root beer in Sugar Rush cause the coders of the game didn't want any alcohol references ya'h know? And…."

Vanellope just kept rambling and rambling about how happy she was. Listening to her made Ralph just as ecstatic on the inside, he was just gratified to see that Vanellope was safe and happy.

"I can't believe I drank root beer!" She yelled as she concluded her whole rant about not having this opportunity before and how she always wondered what it would be like to be everyone else having a root beer "I am sooooo awesome!"

Ralph chuckled a bit as he continued observing the sun. He then remembered a thought that was lingering in his mind.

"So kid," Ralph said, swaying into a different topic as he put down his bottle of root beer to the side "I noticed something earlier today in the car."

"Yeah?" Vanellope said as she took more sips from her root beer, still pumped up with energy and excitement.

"I saw you blushing" Ralph said to her.

She spat out the root beer that was in her mouth.

"Do you need glasses or something, diaper baby?" Vanellope laughed insecurely, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Ralph turned away, crossing his arms jokingly, and said to her,

"Won't open any more root beers for you until you feed my curiosity, kid."

Sighing a little bit, Vanellope thought quickly of an alternative answer

"Yeah, Ralph, I was blushin…I mean my cheeks were just really red! You know, from all that excitement from escaping from the virus and everything.

"Yeah, right" Ralph said sarcastically, "Seriously, you like him, that Victor guy, don't you."

"Well…I….uhhh…." Vanellope stammered "Hey! Okay? I think he's cute, all right? But really…"

Ralph put his hand on her shoulder gently.

"Kid" he said, trying to reassure her "I'm not judging you for it, and I'll always be your best friend, and you'll always be my coolest friend in the world, you hear me? I was just curious. You don't have to say no more."

"Another root beer?" Ralph asked as he pulled out another bottle from a case near him.

* * *

The Mario Brothers and Sonic kept themselves busy during the celebration by fraternizing with the townies and enjoying the popularity they were receiving. Victor Vector, not having much connection with the townies or other characters, shared a couple root beers with the mayor, a couple townies, and even one with Luigi, but Victor wasn't that interested in what they had to discuss. When he had a chance, he snuck out through the back of the pub to ponder to himself. He had to keep reminding himself why he was doing this, why he went out all the way to Game Central Station looking for help from the "Unlikely Heroes". Victor had to remember that there is no time for celebration and that Ranny is an extremely dangerous virus that is out there with ambitions. Victor went into deep thinking about what to do from here on out, because he knew that he had to pursue his goals and he would need to make sure that the heroes of Game Central Station can come along with him.

Suddenly, his train of thought was interrupted by a greeting.

"Victor!" shouted someone, who turned out to be Ralph.

Victor turned around, a bit surprised, but not entirely.

"Oh, Ralph" he said quietly, trying to regain some of his earlier thoughts "Anything I can do for you?"

"Yeah, actually" Ralph said, "Just listen to me."

"I am" Victor responded.

Ralph took a deep breath and adjusted his overalls.

"We were jerks to you before," he began, looking down at the ground a bit with embarrassment "Particularly me and Calhoun. We just didn't trust you, you know, cause we had this whole stressful time rescuing Sugar Rush from Turbo, gosh, that was a twist wasn't?"

Victor nodded his head as he leaned on the wall adjacent to him.

"Well I mean," Ralph continued, not being too articulate with his words "You weren't there and everything, but it was just a crazy time and we weren't really up for another experience like that, you know? But man, after this day here in _Pony Express_, I really opened my eyes a little."

Catching Victor's attention, the antiviral agent leaned in a little.

"This Ranny guy…"Ralph said, a thousand thoughts racing through his mind "There are just so many questions and so much to think about. I hope I find the answers to those questions later, but you know, after today, seeing that he's a threat to this arcade, I really believe that something's gotta be done about that guy. I just wanted to say that I want to take up your offer to travel with you to track this crazy virus down, even if the others aren't up for it."

Victor looked to the ground, smiling a bit.

"What made you change your mind, Ralph?" he asked as he looked up, playing with his root beer bottle.

"You did!" Ralph answered, pointing with his arms right at Victor "And what happened here today. I just finally became content and happy with my place here in Game Central Station, a bad guy that's respected by everyone else and having a lot of awesome friends, like Felix, like Calhoun, like Vanellope! And I was thinking on the kart-ride back from here, that if some virus threatens to take all of that away from me, I'll do all the wrecking and fighting I can to protect all of that."

"Vic" Ralph began to conclude "I gotta hand it to ya, you showed me what the right thing to do is and you definitely inspired me to make the effort to do what's right."

Ralph offered his hand to Victor, smiling warmly towards him.

"Friends? Partners? Whatever?" Ralph asked as Victor stopped leaning on the wall.

"Both" Victor grinned in response as he laughed with Ralph "All three actually, friends, partners, and whatever's."

* * *

Ranny and Marth snuck onto the train back to Game Central Station fairly easily. At the game entrance that connects the world of _Pony Express _to Game Central Station, at that door, like any the door from any other games to Game Central Station, there are chances of random security checks by the surge protector. Ranny and Marth could only hope that they would not be stopped by a random security check, they did not want any more attention or potential attention from the community of Game Central Station.

"What is going to happen now" Marth asked Ranny as the two were preparing to go through the entrance into Game Central Station.

"Well we gotta get through Game Central Station without drawing any attention to us" Ranny replied dryly "We go back to the online domain, smack some dumb, selfish humans around, tell em what to do, and baby we're golden from there. Trust me."

Right before the two crossed the screen security screening into the Game Central Station, Marth grabbed Ranny's suit by the collar and dragged him down.

"You better promise me that _Shiida_ will recover." Marth demanded with his eyes full of fury and passion.

"Or else what?" Ranny retorted, not too phased by Marth's attempt at intimidation "You'll kill me? Marth, you and your broad will have beyond your little kingdom that you set up in _Altea_ or whatever."

"But if you continue to think about or hint at any sign of you abandoning ship" Ranny said, getting more serious "You can go spank your wife on the behind good bye. You know you need me if you want her to have any chance of living. So as we've said before, do as I say, and I'll make sure that your girl stays alive. If not, good luck pal, because no one without viral capabilities like me will be able to keep your woman alive for long."

"Now" Ranny whispered, taking Marth's hand off of his collar "I am going to pretend that did not happen. We are going back to the online domain, deceive some humans, and it will all be finished. We will all live…_happily ever after_."

Marth just nodded his head slowly as he composed himself and acted as though nothing happened. As the two crossed the screening into Game Central Station, they heard a brief alarm go off, which made the two paranoid for moment only to realize that it was a surge protector.

"Step aside sir" said the surge protector as he suddenly appeared next to the Ranny and Marth, the same straight-laced, blue suited surge protector that constantly stops Ralph in particular.

"Random security check, especially since this game has been placed into a state of emergency because of a recent suspected viral infection. The authorities have not confirmed anything yet."

Ranny and Marth looked at each other.

"You're not going to hurt him, are you?" Marth asked in a sharp whisper "You told me that we would try not to hurt as many characters as possible!"

Ignoring Marth's question, Ranny quickly pulled out his jeweled pistol and cocked it.

"Name?" the surge protector routinely questioned, checking things off a check board.

After a brief moment of silence, the surge protecter repeated his question,

"Name?" he said again "I am not going to ask you agai…uhhhh"

The surge protector looked up from his clipboard, stupefied, realizing that he is looking into the barrel of Ranny's gun.

**BANG BANG BANG**

* * *

**END OF ACT 1**

_**So in all seriousness, I had so much fun writing this and I really hope that you guys continue to tag along! Feel free to review, oc, and pm as you wish! Stay tuned for the 2nd act!**_


	12. Act 2 Chapter 1: Arcade Juxtaposition

**Act 2 Chapter 1**

"Surge protector has been shot!"

The cries of the community of Game Central Station rang throughout the whole station just moments after it happened. Characters from Street-Fighter, ghosts from Pac Man, Pac-Man himself, dinosaurs from the Jurassic Park game, Nicelanders, and many other characters from the games were gathered around trying to see what happened to Surge Protector. Within the hour, Ralph, Vanellope, Felix, Calhoun, Victor, the Mario Brothers, and Sonic finally left _Pony Express_ to find Surge Protector on the ground surrounded by a team of soldiers from Hero's Duty. Markowski and Kohut were a part of the group attempting to rejuvenate Surge Protector.

Markowski, at this point, had made a strong recovery from his trauma dealing with cy-bugs in the past. Both he and Kohut continued making their best efforts taking care of Surge Protector as he lied on the ground, unconscious.

"I don't know if he's going to make it." Said Kohut grimly, lifting up his helmet.

Ralph looked at Victor, saying only one word,

"Ranny…"

Victor nodded his head in response.

"No one else is as ruthless or merciless" Victor said as he continued observing the situation.

Sonic looked at the time posted on one of the bulletins boards in Game Central Station and saw that the arcade was going to open in ten minutes.

"We don't have time right now!" Sonic exclaimed "We might just have to go the day without Surge Protector!"

Calhoun growled in response,

"Then that makes plenty of room for potential security breaches!" She shouted "And we all saw what happened just a couple hours ago, Sonic. We have to revive him."

"We have-a no choice!" said Mario with his classic Italian accent, jumping in the air with nervousness "If the players see us out of our games, we will all get-a unplugged!"

Ralph then came up with a suggestion.

"Maybe Felix can fix him up?" Ralph said, putting the idea out there.

Felix went over to Surge Protector to observe his wounds.

"It's definitely possible" Felix concluded "But Jimmany-Jammniy, it would take a while"

"Honey bunches" Felix said over to Calhoun "I can fix him after the arcade closes, but I'm afraid we will have to go the whole day without Surge Protector"

"Felix!" shouted Calhoun, slightly agitated and presenting her typical intense self "Surge Protector might not even be alive by closing time! He'll pixel-bleed out if no one tends to him now!"

Tapper came into the conversation providing another point.

"Well" he said as he was cleaning a root beer glass "I don't know what to tell ya, space lady, cause it's summer time for these kids and I already can see from my game dozens of kids outside the arcade, waiting to play. If we're all out of our games by the time it opens, we're all done for!"

"He has to be saved before we go back to work!" Calhoun insisted, her teeth showing in anger and stress.

"She's a-right!" Luigi supported her "This is-a very important!"

"What's-a more important" Mario said, cutting off his own brother "Is that our games stay plugged in! What? You want to lose the whole Mushroom Kingdom for one blue surge-a protector guy?"

Rancis Fluggerbutter, the only male racer in Sugar Rush, walked through the crowd of characters and responded to Mario

"Well do you want to get eaten by viruses, Mario?" he said with an attitude, curling his blonde hair with his fingers "You don't know what that's like because you guys never had a bug invasion while we did! I say we fix Surge Protector!"

"No!" Mario replied, pulling up his sleeves "I'm-a show you the power of Super Mario if that's what it takes to save my kingdom!"

Rancis brought his tiny fists up and said with tint of nervousness in his voice,

"I'm not scared of you!"

"Stop this!" Calhoun shouted "This has to be negotiated! We can't be fighting each other!"

"Space lady!" Tapper chimed in, cutting her off "There's nothing else that we can do!"

"Yes, there is!"

"No, there isn't!"

Calhoun put her hand on her pistol as the arguing just got more intense and eventually everyone was just shouting their points and opinions on what to do.

"Why don't we all calm down?" Felix tried suggesting in the midst of the chaos "And then we can..."

Felix just stopped talking and sighed as the characters of Game Central Station kept verbally attacking each other. M. Bison from street fighter was pointing his finger at the characters, expressing his thoughts on the issue. Eggman was trying to scientifically and rationally explain what the best possible solution is. Tails, Sonic's best-friend and the famous fox with twin tails, provided plans to compete with Eggman's plans. A T-Rex from the Jurassic Park game roared in frustration and stomped his feet. Yoshi laid an egg out of stress that cracked upon impact with the ground. The noises eventually just kind of swirled around and eventually nothing became clearly audible. No one could really understand what anyone else was saying. Mario and Rancis kept throwing verbal insults at each other, Rancis called him a dumb plumber while Mario called him a loser who has never been first place in a race. Luigi tried to calm his brother, gesturing with his arms as the Mario Brothers typically do. Sonic went in and argued with Eggman, telling him that all of his plans fail anyway and that he's just wasting everyone's time. Tapper told Calhoun to not touch her pistol while Calhoun threw a personal attack at Tapper, telling him that he doesn't even have a noble occupation and that his root beer tastes stale most of the time. Ralph took Felix's job of trying to play moderator but no one really paid attention to him. Victor just put his hand on his head in disappointment.

"Wait! Wait" Vanellope shouted, jumping up and down, trying to get everyone's attention "I got an idea."

The arguing continued and eventually it looked as though it could potentially either turn into violence or that the characters would just get at each other verbally for the whole day.

"SHUT UP!"

Everyone froze and stood silent. Vanellope's face was red with rage and she was breathing heavily as her fists clenched tightly. Vanellope took a deep breath as the other characters turned to her and she started to share her idea,

"Look guys," she began, calming down a bit "We can argue and bash heads all we want, but it won't help us come up with a proper resolution. Just listen to me though, I think this can work."

"As long as no one plays Fix-it-Felix Jr," Vanellope continued as the characters tuned into what she had to say "that will give Felix time to fix Surge Protector, right?" Vanellope asked as she continued elaborating on her plan "All we gotta do is distract all the incoming players from playing Fix-It-Felix Jr. So I hope every other game out there can be as presentational as possible, cause we gotta make sure that no one plays Fix-It-Felix Jr until Felix fixes Surge Protector!"

Tapper, who was about to throw a punch at Calhoun, put down his arm and asked Vanellope calmly,

"How are we going to do that, little girl?" he questioned her.

"Easy" Vanellope responded "Be loud and attract as much attention, while everyone at Fix-It-Felix Jr stays quiet. We have to work together though. We gotta put aside our different interests and idea and uniformly follow through with one plan. Everyone, the arcade is going to open in less than five minutes. Felix, you should get started on Surge Protector right now, all right?"

Felix nodded his head as he took out his magic hammer to operate on Surge Protector. Vanellope saw Paperboy, the title character of the arcade game from 1984 of the same name, riding on his bicycle with several newspapers in his bag.

"Paperboy!" Vanellope shouted as she cupped her hands around her mouth "Spread the news! Tell every game character that's not here at this gathering from Dance Dance Revolution to the Pac-Man that we gotta get the gamers attention away from Fix-it-Felix Jr!"

Paperboy nodded and saluted Vanellope as an indication that he understood her instructions.

"Come on guys!" Vanellope exclaimed as she jumped around "What are you waiting for? To your stations! I don't want to see a kid within a feet of that game until we fixed up surge protector!""

She then turned over to characters from her own game, Sugar Rush.

"Taffyta, Rancis" she said "We gotta make the preview of our game as intense and loud as possible. Let's do this, guys!"

Felix continued operating on Surge Protector, swinging his hammer at the gun wounds on his torso.

"I'll try to fix this up as soon as I can, once I do, you'll see me over at my game." He said as he continued hitting Surge Protector's body with his hammer.

"Ralph" Vanellope continued "Just tell the Nicelanders to be as quiet as possible, and to try to not panic. I know that's tough for them, but do what you can."

Ralph, again beaming with pride as he observed her come up with a plan right on the spot, said to her,

"You're the best president ever." He said proudly.

"Vanellope" Victor said as Vanellope prepared to take off in her kart, "I think there's a way I can help too."

She turned around and said dreamily and clearly taken aback…

"Yeaaah…" she caught herself quickly and got her composure together again "I mean, what? How?"

* * *

"NEW RACER!" The Sugar Rush voice announcer said loudly and in an extremely presentationalmanner as the Litwak opened the Arcade for a stampede of kids who are ready to enjoy a full day at the arcade.

"Wow!" exclaimed some of the incoming kids "Look at this!"

They all pointed at Sugar Rush and crowded around it as two teenage boys quickly took the two available seats to start playing. In just a few moments, a crowd formed around Sugar Rush to observe the two boys playing the game.

"Cool!" said one of the boys in excitement.

"NEW RACER!" The machine said again "Meet your new available avatar for a limited time only, VICTOR VECTOR!"

"Dude!" said one of the kids in the crowd "He looks like Roy from Fire Emblem but in a suit!"

"No man!" said another kid, shoving him a little bit "He looks like a member of the Yakuza!"

"Whatever he looks like, I'm picking him!"

"And I'll pick the girl that can teleport places!" the other kid replied, referring to Vanellope.

The kids, and even Mr. Litwak, were a bit surprised by how loud some of the games were being. It was if the game characters were extremely eager and full of alacrity. Zangief over at street-fighter was crushing men's skulls beneath his thighs as a promotional effort while the screen said "INSERT QUARTER". Even Tapper was yelling out announcements to the gamers.

"Root Beer galore with additional bonus levels!"

As one girl in a green dress went over to Fix-It-Felix, glowing with excitement when she saw her one of the game that her friends always told her to play, took out a quarter from her pocket, only inches away from putting in the coin slot.

"COME PLAY MY GAME YOU STUPID KID" yelled Tapper rudely.

The little girl looked over at Tappers with an extremely confused look on her face. Clearing his throat, Tapper said,

"Ahem, I mean…GET READY TO SERVE! COME PLAY TAPPERS!"

A bit alarmed, the little girl in the green dress called Mr. Litwak over to come investigate the game. She never remembered the Tapper game ever being that promotional.

"Well kiddo,' Mr. Litwak said "The games do seem a bit more energized than usual, but nothing looks broken to me. Here, take a quarter and test this game out for me if you won't mind. These games are acting a bit unusual today…"

The girl proceeded to enter a quarter into Tapper and found that the game functioned normally. She was just serving root beer to various guests like every other time she played the game, though indeed, as Tapper promoted, there were bonus levels.

"Well" Victor said as he made himself a kart made out of Oreo's, chocolate chip cookies, with a whip cream powered engine, and a cherry on the top of his hood "I gotta say this is probably the _sweetest_ ride I've ever driven."

"Hehe" Laughed Vanellope "Well looks like we're gonna be racing each other. We've been selected as the avatars for the players! I won't go easy on ya!"

On the players command and control, Victor revved up his engine of his new cookie-kart as the game screen started the countdown.

_THREE!_

"Show me what you got, Mrs. President" Victor winked in sarcasm as Vanellope tried to hold back her cheeks from glowing red.

_TWO!_

_BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP_

To Vanellope's and the rest of the racers surprise, Victor's kart sped off like no other. His boost literally, left everyone in sugar dust as Victor's kart violently sped away from the rest of the competition. Taffyta Muttonfudge had to clear her eyes of sugar dust as she exclaimed,

"How did he do that?"

Vanellope shrugged as the other racers just started getting off the line and she dreamily said,

"He's got it made."

* * *

"It's already been twenty minutes!" exclaimed Gene, as he paced around the pent house in the game, Fix-It-Felix Jr "Where is Felix?"

"Gene!" Ralph said loudly, slightly annoyed "We just need to remain calm and quiet and not attract the player's attention. I mean look, we're safe. Everyone's crowded over at Sugar Rush and heck, even Tapper and some of the older games are getting in the quarters today! Look!"

Ralph pointed over to games like Pac Man, Street Fighter, Frogger, and even Pony Express. He showed the Nicelanders that they will be safe and that Felix will be able to make it back in time until any kid thinks about putting in a quarter.

Everything seemed to be going as planned until Moppet Girl walked into the arcade.

"Oh no…" Ralph said quietly.

Moppet Girl is a young girl and frequent patron at Litwak's Arcade. She's the girl that played Hero's Duty when Ralph game jumped just over a week ago, trying to achieve his old ambitions of winning a medal. Moppet Girl, not referred to by her real name by any of the characters in the arcade, goes fairly frequently. She is a young girl with shoulder-length blonde hair, pink glasses, a red band, and slightly bunny looking teeth. She wears her trademark floral T-shirt under a pink sweater with red sleeves, blue leggings, white ankle socks, and grey sneakers with a purple stripe. The Nicelanders could observe her blues eyes and rosy cheeks all the way across from the arcade.

The most haunting fact is that recently, her most favorite game to play is _Fix-It-Felix Jr, _she always plays that game first if no one is on it_._

On any other day, when there was no emergency like this occurring, everyone looked forward to Moppet Girl's arrival because she would spend dozens of quarters just playing Fix-It-Felix Jr. Now, of all times, when Felix is unavailable for a little bit, is the worst time that Moppet Girl could go on a Fix-It-Felix gaming marathon.

Q*bert, a small, round, orange creature with a short tubular elephant-like nose and two slender legs connected to his torso, hopped in the world of Fix-It-Felix Jr, informing everyone in Q*bertese, which some of the nice landers were able to interpret, that Felix needs about five to ten more minutes until Surge Protector is revived.

"We don't have five minutes, if we're lucky, we might have a minute!" Gene exclaimed in paranoia as Moppet Girl marched down the arcade, going towards her favorite game as she prepared a quarter out of her pocket.

"I don't want to go through that whole 'out of order episode' again!" shouted Deanna, the female nicelander with the plum colored clothing accessories.

"Ralph!" Gene shouted "Do something!"

Ralph, thinking as fast as he could, just stood silent as Moppet Girl got closer to the game with each step.


	13. Chapter 2: March of the Moppet Girl

**Chapter 2**

"Ralph!" Gene kept repeating sharply, wrenching in fear "Do something!"

"I'm thinking!" he replied as he thought as fast as he could, "Hope the kid's got some trick up her sleeve because I really don't have anything right now."

The other characters in the arcade, whether they were busy being played with by a kid or waiting for a quarter to be inserted into their game, watched in horror as Moppet Girl closed in on Fix-It-Felix Jr.

"Once she puts in that quarter," Gene said as he continued panicking, "She'll tell Litwak that Felix is missing and our plug might get pulled, again!"

Over at Hero's Duty, which was about ten meters in front of and to the right of Fix-It-Felix Jr, was free of any kids for the moment. Calhoun, seeing that Moppet Girl was walking right in front of her game and towards Fix-It-Felix Jr, pointed right at Moppet Girl from the screen to catch her attention.

"Rookie, are you ready?" Calhoun said in her serious, commanding trademark voice, "To perform your duty?"

Moppet Girl paused and turned towards Hero's Duty. She squinted at the screen, looking upon an imposing Calhoun who continuously tried to press her to play her game.

"I remember this rip-off game" Moppet Girl said, annoyed by her first experience playing the game, "I remember some random soldier getting in front of me and letting me get eaten by a bug. Won't play this game again."

Calhoun, not knowing what else to do, decided to break the fourth wall.

"Well, that won't happen again." Calhoun responded to her statement.

"What?" replied Moppet Girl, who adjusted her glasses and looked at the game a little bit closer.

Slapping herself on the face briefly, Calhoun quickly gathered her composure and got right back into the mood of a soldier.

_"Can't believe I'm doing this"_ Calhoun said herself, embarrassed about the fact that she couldn't think of anything else.

"I'm sorry about that experience with one our more inexperienced soldiers, rookie" Calhoun continued, going along with breaking the fourth wall, "But now you don't have to worry about performing your duty, no distractions, no more surprises, now are you ready?"

Moppet girl just stared at the screen a little bit before she called out for Mr. Litwak.

"Mr. Litwak!" She shouted, raising her hand.

"What is it sweetie?" he asked as he was trying to deal with two little boys damaging the whak-a-mole machine.

"I think," Moppet Girl said, still a bit confused herself, "That the game is talking to me!"

Calhoun, shaking her head, asked herself,

_"I'm such a fool_"

Mr. Litwak did a double take towards Moppet Girl as he said one word in surprise,

"What?!"

"Come here!" she announced, "Come see it for yourself. I'm pretty sure the sergeant lady referred to me personally and right from the screen!"

Mr. Litwak left the whak-a-mole to go over to investigate. All he saw was Moppet Girl standing in front of Hero's Duty and the game previewing its typical, standard scenes of the first-person shooter going through various levels and shooting cy-bugs as the screen flashed the phrase "INSERT QUARTER".

"Looks fine to me, sweetie" Mr. Litwak said as he patted her on the back and proceeded to walk around the arcade to see if he was needed elsewhere, "Kids these days, must be the stuff they drink in the sodas…"

Moppet Girl just stood there, glaring at Hero's Duty.

"I know something's up." She said as she continued to walk towards Fix-It-Felix Jr.

Calhoun, who was still trying to get her attention with various previews of the game, said under her breath,

"I hope that gets you enough time, Felix" she said warmly and worriedly as she watched Moppet Girl stroll towards Fix-It-Felix Jr.

* * *

"Here she comes!" Gene shouted as he ran around the penthouse in despair, losing his tranquility completely .

"Gene!" Ralph shouted, agitated with his behavior "Pull yourself together!"

Q*bert jumped over to Ralph and suggested an idea in Q*bertnese, speaking in a collection of elrectronic sounds accompanied by speech bubbles that display strings of symbols.

"%!&?+~" voiced Q*bert confidently, his eyes beaming with determination.

"Q*bert" Ralph said, stressing over the whole situation "You think that will work?"

"#?!" Q*bert replied as he nodded, his trunk slightly swinging.

Moppet Girl smiled as she put her quarter into Fix-It-Felix Jr.

"Ah" she said, moderately refreshed, "My favorite time of the day, fixing time."

The game played its standard intro music as it showed two construction bulldozers build the penthouse the Nicelanders live in and Ralph on top of the building shouting his famous line.

"I'M GONNA WRECK IT"

And the part where Felix comes out and shouts out his trademark line was instead replaced by Q*bert jumping around exclaiming,

"#?!"

"What?" Moppet girl said confusingly, as she took off her glasses and inspected the game really closely, "All these games are being so weird today! Where's the fixing guy?"

Visibly annoyed, Moppet Girl said to herself,

"I'll try this out for a bit."

She began playing the game, fixing whatever Ralph wrecks. The problem is that Q*bert's fixing skills is subpar compared to that of Felix's. Moppet Girl was unable to fix the windows as fast as she could when she played as Felix. Within a minute, Moppet Girl got frustrated enough that she stopped playing and walked away from the game.

The Nicelanders and Ralph cheered for Q*bert after Moppet Girl gave herself a self-imposed game-over.

"Way to go, Q*bert!" Ralph exclaimed happily.

Q*bert's trunk seemed to smile until everyone in Fix-It-Felix Jr heard Moppet Girl yell in the distance,

"Mr. Litwak! Come look at this!"

Gene, as usual, panicked again.

"Oh no!" He yelled, "I knew something bad would happen."

Ralph and Q*bert looked at each other, expecting the other one to have a plan of some sort.

"Gene" said a very familiar, buoyant, happy voice, "I like you a lot, I really do, but Jimminy Jamminy you gotta stop reacting all dramatic like every time something doesn't go your way!"

* * *

"What is it this time, sweetie" Mr. Litwak asked her, a bit drained from the first time she called him over.

"Look!" She said, pointing at Fix-It-Felix Jr, "The fixing guy is missing!"

Mr. Litwak went over to the game and took a close look at the screen for a few solid seconds.

"He's right here, kid." Mr. Litwak pointed out much to Moppet Girl's surprise.

Moppet Girl went back to take a look. She saw for herself the display of Felix shouting "I can Fix-it!" and Ralph wrecking the building. She put her hands on the screen as she said in disappointment,

"But…but…but…just a second ago…he wasn't…"she kept stammering until Mr. Litwak suggested to her,

"Honey, maybe you should go home and get some rest. Or maybe it's the sugar, I'm not sure. I think you played enough games for a week."

Moppet Girl put her hand on her forehead and said to herself,

"Maybe it'd be a good idea if I drink something or lie down…"

She proceeded to leave the arcade, but not without saying a phrase out of determination,

"I know something's up …"

* * *

"Felix!" Ralph shouted in joy as he hugged the famous fixer, "I've never been this happy to see you! Well, maybe this is second to that time when you fixed Vanellope's kart and the finish line, but really! Man, I'm so relieved!"

Smiling, Felix replied,

"Just doing my duty." He said, patting Ralph on the back, "Surge Protector is thin as a fiddle, but he's fixed and he'll be able to do his job today."

"Well what do you know," Felix said as he saw a line of kids forming outside the game, all armed with quarters in their hands, "looks like we got a couple quarter alerts, time to go to work guys!"

As Ralph was getting in position, he shouted over to Felix as he climbed the penthouse,

"You're my favorite good guy, _ever!" _

"Hey!" Felix responded, "I don't deserve all the credit! Vanellope was fabulous today! Leading us all like a true president!"

"I know," Ralph said quietly, smiling as he prepared for the game to be played, "She's the best president anyone could ask for."

* * *

"First place!" Shouted the game announcer of Sugar Rush as Victor Vector crossed the line.

Victor turned around in his vehicle as he watched Vanellope cross over the line just a few seconds after him.

"I thought I told you not to go easy on me, Mrs. President." Victor laughed as he did a victory lap, which happens automatically for every racer who finishes in the top three.

The two kids playing the game left after completing the course, the one who played as Victor taunted the other one for beating him by such a close margin. Vanellope, slightly out of breath from the amount of effort she put into the race, responded,

"Where did you learn to drive like that?"

Victor, slowing down the kart as the two drove next to each other on their victory lap, answered,

"Well I've been involved in several chases with viruses, it's all from experience. I did not train specifically to cultivate my driving skills" Victor then realized that it's been a while since they've been in the game.

"I wonder if Surge Protector is fixed up yet," Victor thought out loudly, "I can't stay here too much longer."

"Well" Vanellope said, trying to control her excitement from being around Victor, "The gamers think you're awesome, I wouldn't mind if you stayed, I mean, I am sure they wouldn't mind if you stayed a bit longer"

Before Victor could reply, Taffyta and Rancis drove up to the two excitedly.

"Vanellope!" Taffyta shouted over from her kart, "Felix is done! We don't have to be super presentational anymore!"

"I gotta say, " Rancis added in as he gave a thumbs up sign to Vanellope, "You were awesome today! Just like the princess, I mean, president of Sugar Rush, should be!"

"Oh, okay," Vanellope said dryly, slightly disappointed as she turned over to Victor, "Well, looks like we...wait, where did you go?"

She was just looking over the scenery of the course, Royal Raceway, where she raced Turbo just a week before. Victor's kart was no longer where it was just a moment ago. She then saw that Victor Vector was driving off into the distance, towards Game Central Station, to go back to the Ayala Café.


	14. Chapter 3: Leaving the Arcade

**Chapter 3 **

The day was filled with pondering and thinking for everyone.

The perception of safety and their own world has been shaken up by the whole ordeal. With Surge Protector getting hurt. The community of Game Central Station were still trying to accept that there was a security breach in their own home. How could a virus from a faraway place come all the way here? Why would he anyway? There were all these questions that were being asked by every inhabitant of Litwak's Arcade.

As eight PM came around the corner and Litwak began telling the kids to play their last rounds of whatever game they were playing, the characters who were not busy entertaining kids sat back and took deep breaths from today's events.

"Phew," Said Tapper as he wiped his forehead of virtual sweat, "What a day!"

"You know" Zangief said in his strong eastern European accent as he sipped on a glass of root beer, "I never crushed so hard before. Today, was both a stressful and special day for Zangief."

* * *

"All right, kids" Litwak announced, "It's time to go home, it's five past eight. Finish up that last round of whatever you're all playing."

As the last kids streamed out of the arcade slowly, Litwak shut off the lights and said to himself,

"I need a break."

He proceeded to grab a giant piece of white cardboard from storage and started writing with a black permanent marker in big, dark letters,

**ON VACATION, BE BACK NEXT WEEK**

Litwak looked back as he grabbed his keys and closed the entrance to the arcade as he said to himself,

"I've never left the arcade for so long, but I really do need to just get away for a little bit. It will probably be good for both me and the kids"

Litwak locked the front doors of the arcade and he proceeded to walk home. He only lived about a block away from the arcade in a small but cozy home with his wife of thirty years. Together, they opened the arcade the year they got married and were able to live off the revenue from that. Litwak, despite his simplicity and his quiet nature, has an economically strong mind. He has been able to save up his revenue and especially with the renewed popularity of some of his games, he was able to gather enough income for a nice vacation for him and his wife. He was not sure if they were even going to go on vacation, he just knew he was well off to take a few days off from work.

Besides, his one and only daughter is coming home from her junior year of college. He has not had the opportunity to spend quality time with her in years.

* * *

Ralph, Felix, and Calhoun were already in the top floor of the pent house in Fix-It-Felix Jr to discuss their next move. Ralph brought several cases of root beer for the three of them. Felix, who is not really a root beer drinker at all, even took a couple drinks from the rough day he just had.

"I gotta be honest," Felix said as he put down his root beer mug, "I never been that stress in my whole career. I'm just glad that Surge Protector is A-okay."

Calhoun patted him on the back and gave him a kiss on the cheek. As always, Felix cheeks blushed a honey glow that's familiar with all the characters.

"You did great, babe." Said Calhoun as she looked upon her husband with a proud smile.

Ralph took a deep breath and told the couple,

"Vanellope is going to be here in a few minutes. She always has a gamer staying over time and whatnot." Ralph started as he consumed two root beers at a time, "Once she has collected herself and took care of things in Sugar Rush, she's gonna be here. We gotta discuss a lot of things."

Calhoun looked over at Ralph and asked,

"Enlighten me."

The door opened to only reveal that it was Gene as opposed to Vanellope whom the trio were expecting,

"I'm just here to say that the pizza you ordered from the pizza game is here" Gene said, a bit agitated, "And I'll just get going now."

"Listen," Ralph continued, motioning with his hands as they ignored the fact that Gene just walked in, "That whole thing with Ranny and _Pony Express_, I don't think that's going to be the last of it. Victor came here with a purpose and his reasoning seems to make sense to me. I mean, isn't today proof that this virus is a problem for all of us?"

Calhoun and Felix nodded, Calhoun more so reluctantly than Felix, in agreement.

"Calhoun," Ralph said in all seriousness, "Would you risk losing what you have? Your marriage with Felix, the popularity you have with all the kids here, your status in _Hero's Duty._ I think Ranny really threatens all of that, and if Victor needs us to go over with him, I'm not sure about you guys, but I'm going."

The door to the room opened with a familiar, energetic voice chiming,

"I already took two slices of pizza, is that okay with you guys?" Vanellope said as she chewed with her mouth open and holding the pizza box with her left hand, "The pizza is for us anyway, right?"

The trio motioned for Vanellope to take a seat with them. Vanellope asked as she continued chewing a slice of pizza,

"What's with all the long faces, guys?"

"Serious issues," Calhoun responded, "And I'm really indecisive of what to do."

"Ralph" she continued, thinking about Ralph's points and arguments, "It has always been my duty to protect this arcade and my game from all dangers. Now that I am married, I have even greater responsibility now. If protecting this arcade means I have to go travel outside the arcade and risk myself, as I did when I went to Sugar Rush during the whole Turbo episode, I'd be more than willing to put my life on the line to save everything that is important to me."

"I'm going wherever you go," Felix said assertively, holding Calhoun's hand, "Just like last time."

"Felix," Calhoun said slowly, "I want you to stay here. I really can't risk putting you in danger. And it isn't just that. I don't want to see you in danger of any sort."

Vanellope took out a letter from her pocket as she said,

"Well," she started, finishing her slice of pizza, "Victor left me a letter, and it explains that he needs all of us to come along with him. According to him, we all have special 'skills' and powers that can help him in stopping this crazy Ranny guy. Here, read the letter for yourselves."

Vanellope handed them Victor Vector's letter, which was sealed in a plain envelope. His hand writing was standard but extremely legible. It had a slightly artistic style to it that seem to have elements of a renaissance writer.

_Vanellope,_

_ I will keep this short and sweet. Please show this to the others. I am preparing for an expedition to Realm of Adventures very shortly. I would like to go into the online domain by tomorrow morning before the Ayala Café opens. I already received a message Sonic, through electronic means, that Litwak plans on being away for several days. We will have more than enough time to stop Ranny from achieving his ambitions. I need everyone's help. That includes you, Ralph, Felix, and Calhoun. I already been contacted by the Mario Brother's and Sonic who have expressed a willingness to participate in this endeavor. After closing time at the arcade, please take the electric-power transmission lines to go over to the Ayala Café. I will be waiting at the east port. Don't worry, naturally, the transmission lines will transport you to Ayala East Port._

_ I hope to see you shortly,_

_ Victor Vector _

"Well," Ralph said, "Looks like we are taking a field trip together."

Calhoun stood up and said confidently to Ralph.

"I'm going" she said as she charged her laser rifle, "and I'll be sure to take on this viral sucker myself."

Ralph looked over to Felix.

"Hey," he started, shrugging a bit but quickly regathered some confidence, "We can fix-it, right?"

Smiling, Ralph then turned over to Vanellope who grinned back, confidently,

"Diaper baby," she began, "We are the best team ever. And that means that wherever you go, I am tagging along too. Now if that chess-board thinks he can intimidate us, we'll show him what's coming. I don't think this virus has any chance to do whatever he wants to do now that we're in the picture."

"Ralph" Calhoun said, "Looks like we're all in. Felix and I will take my cruiser. Will you be okay to take Vanellope's vehicle over to the internet cafe?"

Ralph and Vanellope looked over at each other with strong confidence,

"We'll be good." Vanellope said as she took out her keys to the Stinkbrain, "Let's roll!"


	15. Chapter 4: Ahoy! The Electric Highway

**Chapter 4**

Very few ever gathered the audacity to not only game jump but also to leave the arcade.

Nothing new or fearful for these four.

Vanellope followed Calhoun's cruiser in the Stinkbrain as the they all trekked through Game Central Station towards the exit into the open world. The characters throughout Game Central Station were not aware of the fact that Ralph, Vanellope, Felix, and Calhoun plan on being gone for an extended period of time. To the community of Game Central Station, it did not really matter anyway. The fact that everyone has a vacation for a whole week was overwhelmingly good news. It has been years since the characters of Game Central Station were granted an opportunity to just relax and not be played with for a little bit.

Each game in the arcade had a large entrance coated with gold colored rims. The entrances were standard so other than the electronic billboard above each game that revealed the title, each entrance was identical. For the door that led out of Game Central Station, it was just a grander version of the standard golden rim doors with an even larger electronic sign that read…

**TO THE ELECTRIC HIGHWAY  
**

The Electric Highway is the roadway that connects different gaming communities to each other. It's a highway that enables characters from the internet, mobile devices, different arcades, and even different consoles to meet up for various reasons. For their purpose, Ralph and the rest would make use of the Electric Highway for the first time in their lives to go over to the Ayala Cafe. As the four moved up to the grand entrance, or exit, of Game Central Station, a familiar alarm sound went off as a familiar member of the community suddenly teleported by the entrance.

"Random security check," said Surge Protector, looking as good as new, "Very few decide to leave the arcade. I know who you all are, but I gotta ask some standard and procedural questions first."

Ralph whispered to Vanellope as a joke,

"Maybe Felix _shouldn't _have fixed him." He giggled with Vanellope, "Would make this a whole lot easier."

"Names?" Surge Protector said, almost automatically.

"Wreck-It-Ralph," Ralph responded in a monotone manner, mimicking Surge Protectors's own tone.

"Vanellope von Schweetz!" Vanellope exclaimed with a hop, "President of Sugar Rush!"

"Fix-It-Felix Jr!" Felix chimed in with a friendly smile, "From the game, _Fix-It-Felix Jr!"_

"Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun," the sergeant from Hero's Duty said seriously, donning her trademark expression.

"Purpose of trip?" Surge Protector asked routinely.

"Uhh" Ralph stammered as he thought quickly of an alternative answer, "Vacation to the Internet Café?"

Surge Protector looked up from his clipboard with a sense of doubt.

"Really?" was he all he said before he motioned for them the approval to leave the arcade, "Just be safe out there, no one is responsible for you once you leave. There are all sorts of things out there so just watch where you're going."

With that, Surge Protector zoomed away with a violent electronic sound. The four proceeded to go on their way towards the Ayala Café. Calhoun and Felix flew over and matched the speed of the S.S Stinkbrain as to prevent them from getting separated. They all knew that they were now treading the great unknown and that it would be better for them to stick together for safety's sake.

"I can't believe it." Vanellope said as she steered the S.S Stinkbrain.

Ralph looked with a questioned expression on his face.

"I mean," Vanellope continued as she observed the electric lines she was driving through, "Look at this."

She pointed with one hand at the wide open spaces and the sights of other characters, programs, and other unknown things flying around her. There were some characters traveling in various vehicles with a variety of different attributes. They saw some spaceships similar to Calhoun's cruisers but also some very unique ones that were unfamiliar to the four. For them, it was a highway of the unknown.

A familiar face in a green suit drove by them in a jeep-like machine with huge rubber tires. Calhoun quickly recognized this character as _Master Chief _from the _Halo _series driving in a Warthog Armored Personnel Carrier that had a heavily armored passenger section used to carry troops and supplies. Despite the fact that _Master Chiefs _presence seemed very military, he was blasting the music and yelling as though he was a college student on vacation.

"Sounds like he's got a lot of fun stuff planned," Ralph observed as they watched _Master Chief _speed away on his Warthhog.

It would only be a few more minutes until the four heroes of Game Central Station reach the Ayala Café.

"Honey bunches," Felix said as he watched his wife steer the cruiser, thinking for moment about exactly what he was going to say.

"Just don't be too nervous, especially for me, all right?"

Calhoun nodded as she shared a quick kiss with Felix.

"You're my everything." Calhoun replied, stroking Felix's short hair until she was interrupted by a road black on the highway.

Felix leaned over towards the windshield of the cruiser as he tried to observe what was going on.

"That's a huge ship!" Felix shouted, "I wonder what…"

The ship in front of them was a huge space frigate with three masts, a raised forecastle, and a quarterdeck. It looked as if the ship carried thirty or more huge guns on each side. The four were completely shocked and could not believe that something that big could have moved in front of them so quickly.

It was huge vessel that could float. The sight of it was intimidating but also a little quirky. Vanellope couldn't help but chuckle a bit despite the audacity of the situation.

"What is going on?" Ralph asked as he got out of the S.S Stinkbrain.

A man then showed up upon the deck of the huge ship. He has evils that seemed to glow yellow, a body full of scars that demonstrated previous journeys he must have endured on the electric highway. His long, black, straggly hairs were thick and stiff and not to mention that his beard of exceptionally black and prickly. He looked like a stereotypical pirate from any pirate game or movie.

The man quickly pulled out a large knife from his pocket as he gruesomely said to the four.

"Ahoy!" he shouted, as the rest of his crew began to reveal themselves, "Welcome to the electronic highway! We, as you obviously see, are internet pirates! We pirates steal all sorts of intellectual property! From games to pornography to even books! And we are very interested to see what you all have for us today."

The Pirates began descending from the frigate in a variety of ways. Some simply jumped off the frigate and landed gracefully on the road. Some used ropes or ladders to get down onto the highway. There were about forty of these pirates that came down from the ship, all revealing their weapons and smiles full of dirty and rotten teeth.

The captain of the ship, with clothes that looked like they have never been washed, walked closer to the four as he picked his teeth with his knife,

"Don't be scared, matey's" he said as he neared in on the four heroes, "This will all be easier if you don't try anything stupid."


End file.
